Princess Poppy
by tampoposensei
Summary: A 'little mistake' from a past mission. It's hungry and it needs it's diaper changed. Shonenai yaoi Some humour some angst and even a little bit of plot. Chapter 18. The final resolution.
1. Chapter 1

I wrote this a while ago for the KakIru comm. I did a second chapter that I'll post when I find it. Seems the file got lost in the belly of my computer. There will be more, but I'm really strung out right now. Not much time for fun stuff.

I plan to keep to the T rating, so don't expect too much sex or violence.

By the way... Kakashi and Iruka don't belong to me.

* * *

Keshi-hime or Princess Poppy. 

The girl stood outside the gate of Hidden Leaf village with her burden resting on the ground at her feet. That man in the tower looking down on her was... scary. The way he grinned was scary all by itself, but that… that thing in his mouth. It looked like the long needle her grandmother used to stitch up meat after she'd stuffed it with seasoned rice. Hadn't anyone ever told him that you should never put anything sharp in your mouth? And he was biting it and twirling it with his tongue. If he cut himself it would really hurt, and the blood would run out of his mouth and down his chin and stain the front of that funny jacket he was wearing. She felt sick to her stomach at the thought.

Genma looked down at the girl, the little girl, she couldn't be more than eleven or twelve. Even though most of her slight frame was covered by a hooded cloak, the thinness of her arms, and the pale translucency of the skin on her face, made that more than obvious. How she had lugged that heavy basket all the way across the hills from Thunder Cuntry was beyond him. And where was Anko with the ANBU? He was starting to feel uncomfortable perched up there looking at her looking at him. The kid seemed harmless enough, but the most dangerous assassins always did. Who knew what might be under that cloak, or in that basket?

"So your cousin asked you to bring this to Konoha, said it belongs to one of our people."

He had to strain his ears to hear her answer. "Yes. She works at one of the great houses in Hekireki. She said there was a Konoha shinobi who was there as a bodyguard for the lord about a year ago. She said he left this behind and I should bring it to him here."

Genma considered. The story was reasonable. There'd been a flurry of missions over in Thunder Country during the past year or so. One of the great lords had died without an obvious heir and there'd been a nasty struggle for succession in all the other noble houses. Everyone who could claim sama after their name had been watching their backs… and their throats. It had been good times, almost everyone he knew had made decent money off it. But what would a shinobi want with something that big and heavy on a mission anyway? And if was _that_ important to him why had he left it behind?

From his vantage point he saw Anko approaching with the ANBU escort.

"Ok girly, here they are."

The gates swung open and the girl almost grabbed the basket and ran away. Two huge figures stood facing her, dressed in black, with weird armour and horrible white masks over their faces. It was the most terrifying thing she'd ever seen. A dark-haired woman pushed her way between them. She was really pretty, but something about her was every bit as scary as the monster on either side.

Anko looked the girl up and down. "So this is the threat. Come on kid, you'd better tell your story to the Gondaime."

Tsunade was sitting at her big desk as the party was ushered into her office. The desk was almost clear because Iruka had just spent the past two hours, under threat of bodily harm from Shizume, 'helping' the Hokage to deal with her paper work. It was a ritual they went through about once a month. Usually he tried to get through it when Kakashi was away and he was just as glad to have something to fill his time. He retreated to a corner and stood in silence as the ANBU took up their places on either side of the door.

"So I understand one of my shinobi left this in Hekireki and you are returning it to him."

"The girl's pale skin took on a slight flush. "Er yes My Lady. My cousin, that is my second cousin, I really don't know her very well, in fact I'm not sure that I'd ever met her before…"

Tsunade sighed. "Get on with it girl."

A faint mewling noise came from the covered basket. Tsunade's eyes opened wide. "One of my shinobi left a _cat_ in Thunder?"

Anko smirked and peeled back the blanket. Tsunade stood up behind her desk and leaned forward to make _sure _that she was seeing what she thought she was seeing.

"Oh."

There was a tense moment of silence before she continued. "Well this isn't the first er, 'love child' to be left on our doorstep. Did your cousin… your second cousin, tell you the name of this child's father?"

The girl took a step back timidly. "No. As I said I don't really know her very well. In fact from what she said to my mother I'm not sure that she knows his name. She just said that he'd been hired as a bodyguard at the great house, that he was from Hidden leaf… and that he had silver hair."

Every leaf resident in the room turned, with the precision of a well-trained drill team, to look at Iruka.

He was leaning back into the wall, half in an attempt not to faint, and half with a fervent desire to be swallowed up by it.

Tsunade was sucking in her lips desperately trying to keep her expression neutral, but the crinkles around her eyes betrayed her amusement. "I see."

She took a long breath. "So Iruka… will you check the records? Find out who was assigned to missions in Thunder," she looked at the baby to judge it's age, "between ten and twelve months ago."

Iruka peeled himself off the wall and just managed to croak out a response. "Of course Hokage-sama."

He tried not to stagger too visibly in his semi-dazed state as he made his way out of the room and down the hallway towards records. Once there he sorted through the stacks, with the speed and efficiency of someone who had the skill to locate and steal a file, in the time between tripping an alarm and the armed response. Which of course he did.

Ok, Thunder Country a year ago. Please, please don't let Kakashi's name be there. Let it be a mistake. Really it could have been anyone, in disguise, someone else using a henge, just to look silver haired. He forbade the question _why _anyone would want to do such a thing from intruding on his pitiful hopes.

Once he'd located the right section, he pulled the mission reports. So far so good. Ebisu. Everyone knew he was a closet pervert, and a definite possibility, and not beyond using a disguise to hide his true identity either. Genma. Well he would screw anything that moved, and most things that didn't. Kurenai. No. And… Kakashi. He'd been in Hekireki at the house of Shiro for two weeks as a bodyguard almost exactly eleven months ago. Iruka's mouth went dry as he read through the familiar chicken scratch handwriting on the report for a second, and then a third, time.

Slowly his legs folded under him as he felt the straws he'd been clutching at slip from his grasp. He wasn't sure how long he sat on the record room floor, sucking in deep breaths, but it must have been a while. Then when he'd arranged the features on his face to something that would pass as a smile, he hurried back to Tsunade's office.

Everyone was standing exactly where he'd left them. Tsunade behind her desk, the girl with the basket in the middle of the room, Anko and Genma behind her, and the ANBU framing the door. It was as if no one had dared to move while he was gone, as if they all knew that _he_ was the main character in the drama being played out here. He dropped the reports on the desk and retreated to his corner in silence.

Tsunade picked them up and leafed through them, pausing when she reached the crumpled mud-stained one at the bottom. The one he recognised as Kakashi's.

"Well, the evidence seems fairly… compelling. At least at first glance. Iruka, where is Kakashi-san now."

He answered on autopilot, painfully aware of the colour rising in his face.

"Suna Hokage-sama."

She avoided looking at him, as if the report was absorbing all her interest. "And when do you, er, we expect him back?"

"Three or four days, a week at the most."

She looked up, sweeping her eyes across the silent faces in the room. "Well I suppose you should take it to the orphanage for now, I'm sure we can find a couple who'd be overjoyed at the chance to adopt such a pretty child."

The girl watched the ANBU step towards the basket and snatched up the baby protectively.

"Her. She's not an it, she's a little girl, a her."

She glared at the masked monstrosity leaning towards her. "I didn't want to bring her here, after all she's my cousin too, isn't she? I told my mother that she should be with us, with family. But she said the house was too small for all of us, with my brothers and my grandma and grandpa."

Her chin trembled as if she was holding back tears.

Iruka felt his eyes drawn to the baby's little pink face, peeking over the snug white blanket she was cocooned in. Above it he saw a dusting of snowy down. White hair. She had white hair.

He crossed the room and gently took her from the girl. "You're right, she's not going to the orphanage, she should be with her family."

There was a long pause as he stared down everyone in the room. Then he tenderly pressed his lips into the colourless fluff on the baby's head. "I'll take her. If this isKakashi's child then _I _am her family."

He bowed to the girl, picked up the basket and walked out of the door. And even though every ninja present out-ranked him, not one, not Anko, nor even Tsunade, had the balls to contradict him.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N Well I found the missing chapter.

For anyone who's interested, I had planned to call the baby Wild Oat. I think a scarecrow is a likely suspect for sowing wild oats don't you? But I couldn't find a Japanese equivalent. Poppies are wildflowers that grow in cornfields (around scarecrows?) so I picked the Japanese word for poppy instead. It's keshi and sounded enough like Kakashi to my untrained ear to be a nice substitute.

A/N 2. I will continue this, I always finish my fics and always keep my promises. But although I don't like to leave things hanging, I can't promise any particular timeline. RL is a bit too insane right now even by my standards. Maybe in a couple of weeks to a month things will have settled down.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi was full of it. 

Sand that is.

His clothes, his skin, his hair. He blinked his gritty eyes in the darkness, trying to see through the blear, as he climbed in through his apartment window. There was only one thing on his mind right now, a nice soothing hot shower to get every last grain of the damned stuff off his body.

Well, two things on his mind. The other was the warm brown body, with its unique fresh smell of sunshine and skin, that he knew lay waiting for him, softened by sleep, as soon as he was clean enough to feel fit to curl up beside it.

He shampooed his hair and soaped his body, cringing as the sand scoured his wind-stung skin. As the last of the hated stuff rinsed down the drain he blotted himself to medium dampness on a clean towel and crawled into bed. A strong sleepy arm folded over him and he fell into a deep sleep.

Suddenly his sweet rest was shattered by an ear-piercing shriek. He leapt up, shoving Iruka behind him, as he grabbed the weapons stashed under his pillow.

A sneak attack by Hidden Sound, had to be, a noise like that. Only a mind like Orochimaru's could create something so nerve-wracking. He waited for the explosion, or concussion, or whatever damage it was about to incur.

Iruka pushed him aside roughly, very roughly. Yelling with volume to match the jutsu coming from the far side of the room.

"KAKASHI! What the… what are you doing here? Put some clothes on, there's a child here, and get rid of those knives, and what the hell do you think you're doing getting in bed with me anyway after what you've done? You certainly have some damn nerve!"

Kakashi's mouth opened and closed once or twice by itself, but no sound came out. What _had_ he done? He hadn't even been here to _do_ anything. Then through his sharingan he noticed a cage beyond the bed. Something within it was the source of the sound. And Iruka was walking _towards_ it.

Dammit did the man have to take in every damn demon that crossed his path?

As he prepared to protect his beloved teacher from whatever danger he'd brought into their home, Kakashi noticed that the 'cage' was in fact an old fashioned wooden crib, and the howling creature within it was a baby.

He let out a long breath, and was about to follow Iruka to investigate when he was met by a glare so cold that it made his balls retreat inside his body.

"I said clothes. Now!"

"But… but, Iruka, it's only a baby."

If possible the glare intensified.

By the time he'd pulled on an old T-shirt and a pair of boxers, Iruka had switched on a dim nightlight and was seated on the edge of the bed with the child on one shoulder. He sat next to his partner and tried to ignore the screams, which, although they were no less shattering, now seemed much less menacing.

"I think it's hungry."

"Really, you can tell? There's some bottled formula in the kitchen. The hospital nursery gave me a case, they said it should last a week or two, long enough for us to get set up. It's all ready, you just have to take off the cap."

Sure enough in the middle of the kitchen table there was a large box of glass bottles, filled with ivory liquid. Kakashi snapped off the plastic protector from one, and found that it was already fitted with a soft nipple. He carried it back to the bedroom, gently infusing it with chakra to warm it to body temperature, then handed it to Iruka.

"So who's is it?" He asked as he sat back down to watch.

Iruka's eyes took on a luminous misty quality. "It's not an it, it's a she, and she's yours. Ours. She's our Keshi, Keshi-hime unless you want to call her something else."

Kakashi almost fell off the edge of the bed.

He looked the other man over in shock. "OURS! But… but Iruka… I've only been gone two weeks!"

Iruka sighed. He spoke slowly and clearly, as if the genius and former child prodigy was one of his denser students. "Not ours _that way_, as in yours and mine. Yours because you're her father, and that makes her mine too, because what's yours is mine... right?"

Little Keshi chose that moment to let out another piercing wail.

"Oh no, not again. And she seemed fine a moment ago. It's like this every time I feed her, she seems too hungry and anxious to be able to drink properly."

Kakashi took the squalling child, nestled her in the crook of one arm, then took the almost full bottle and shook it. "Mmm, she's sucking too hard, not letting in air so she's not getting any milk. Probably used to being breast fed."

The baby clamped back onto the nipple as soon as it was put in her mouth, but after letting her take two swallows Kakashi pulled it away. She filled her lungs ready for a loud protest, but he slipped it back, so she changed her mind and went back to feeding. Almost at once she fell into the rhythm, suck suck breathe, suck suck, breathe. Soon he didn't need to take away her source of comfort and food, so she relaxed and by the time the bottle was almost drained she was fast asleep.

He stood carefully and lay her on her back in the crib.

Iruka watched with something close to awe. "How did you know that? About the air?"

"Oh, sometimes a bitch will have more pups than she has milk for. Then you have to bottle feed the runt. Puppies have to learn the same trick."

Kakashi turned to face him slowly, hovering like a long white shadow. "So what makes you think _I'm_ the father?"

Suddenly Iruka felt very cold. He folded his arms across his chest, hugging his shoulders. His initial dismay, anger, disappointment, pick an emotion, had diffused over the past few days. But it was a conversation that he knew they'd have to have some time.

"That's what the girl said."

"Girl?"

He steeled himself, there was no easy way to say this. "Yes the girl who brought her here. You knocked up her cousin when you were on a mission in Thunder Country last year."

Kakashi tilted his head to one side. "Mmm, maybe."

Iruka exploded with rage. "MAYBE! WHAT THE… " He was cut short by a whimper from the crib and sat on the edge of the bed, shaking with anger and struggling against his need to scream.

Kakashi sat next to him. But sensibly, he kept a few feet away.

"You can hardly expect me to remember every detail of a mission a year ago."

The look Iruka gave him would have killed a lesser man. "I'd hardly call impregnating and abandoning a servant girl a 'detail'."

Kakashi drew himself up, very stiff and very straight. "You know as well as I do that we do whatever we have to do on a mission. If I needed information and sex was the best way to get it, then that's what I'd have done. Condoms can fail you know."

It was as if he'd pulled all his stiffness from Iruka, who wilted like a damp rag. "So you didn't have an affair?"

It was Kakashi's turn to bristle with fury. "What the hell kind of accusation is that? Don't you trust me Iruka?"

"I'm sorry." Iruka's eyes shone with unshed tears as the tides of emotions roiling through him took their toll. "I'm just glad I don't have to love you any less."

Kakashi smiled and moved closer. "I can see it must have been quite a shock, and the evidence _is _pretty damning." He risked putting an arm around the other man, drawing them together. "Would you have? Loved me less?"

Iruka shook his head, making his untied hair brush against both their faces. "No." Dark eyes stared up into unmatched blue and red. "I tried to, at first. But I couldn't."

"You really want to keep her don't you?"

"Yes I do. I really do."

"Neither of us know anything about babies, or about being parents for that matter."

Iruka gave him a sneaky look. "We'll learn, besides you know everything, you're a genius."

"It will be a lot of work, especially for you."

"It won't be work, it will be fun."

Kakashi kissed his forehead. "You fall in love too hard too fast."

"Just wait until she smiles at _you_ for the first time." Iruka found his lover's lips and pressed his against them. They opened allowing him to enforce him claim as his pulse quickened.

He felt himself guided onto the bed and under the covers as a familiar hard body snuggled against his warm brown one. There was nothing to do but fold his strong, sleepy arm over it. Kakashi sighed as he inhaled the sweet fresh fragrance of sunshine and skin.

Within a few minutes, everyone in the household was sleeping as peacefully as its newest, and youngest member.


	3. Chapter 3

A?N This is something of a filler chapter. the plot will pick up again with the next one. BTW there's a bit of touching and teasing between the men, let me know if you think I should up the rating. :)

* * *

A rustle, a rasping cry, and the sudden presence of cool air beside him, replacing warm flesh, awoke Kakashi from his deep sleep. He opened his eyes to see Iruka bent over the crib on the far side of the room, offering a magnificent view, as he scooped up little Keshi. 

"Come to Daddy Sweetiepie."

A smile curved the copy nin's lips, and gradually spread happiness throughout his whole body. He watched his lover holding his daughter, their daughter. Together they were just way too… adorable.

"Shouldn't I be Daddy. I _am_ her father after all."

Iruka turned to face him, adjusting the baby's weight against his chest. "Well I'm sure as hell not being Mummy."

Kakshi sat up and patted the mattress beside him. The other man sat down, and he wrapped his arms around him, so that the child was nestled gently between their strong toned bodies.

"Then we have a problem don't we?"

"I don't see why, just because she has two daddies. We'll just be Daddy One and Daddy Two."

Kakashi released them both and threw himself back against the pillows with a throaty chuckle.

"Only you Iruka. Only you could come up with such a sweet, charming, and absolutely perfect answer. And you didn't even have to think about it did you?" He gazed at his partner with open admiration.

Iruka blushed and nuzzled the baby's head, smiling shyly. "You like it? I'll even let you be Daddy One. As you said, you're her father."

"You're already more of a father than I'm sure I shall ever be. You're the reason that she's going to grow up to be a beautiful, well adjusted and all around wonderful person. Just like her Daddy Two."

Misty brown eyes darted up as Iruka coloured even more. "Of course she'll be beautiful, a real heartbreaker. We may have to make her wear a mask."

Kakashi grinned and sat up again, holding out his arms to take the child. "So what do I need to do today?"

"You want to look after her?"

"Of course, while I'm here. We'll have to work out something for when I'm away, but I'd hope the old slave driveress will give us a few days at least."

Iruka shifted a little. It always made him uncomfortable when Kakashi spoke about Hokage-sama like that. But he had a point. She had been working him relentlessly for the past few months.

"Well I have been taking her to school with me, but she is a pretty big distraction. Although several of the kids have little brothers and sisters, and they've given me quite a few useful tips. You know, how to hold her, how to rock her to sleep. The kind of thing you learn as part of a family."

Kakashi ignored the hint of sadness in that last sentence and waited for Iruka to continue.

"Just feed her, bath her, change her and hold her if she gets fussy. She should sleep quite a lot of the time. And she's been going through about three or four bottles of that stuff a day."

"Piece of cake. I'll even see if I have time to turn in my report."

Iruka laughed as he headed for the bathroom. "Well at least you'll have a decent excuse for it being late for once."

Still holding the baby, Kakashi rose from the bed with a fluid grace common in cats, but rare in men, and made his way to the kitchen.

First off she needed a change of clothes. The front of the sack-like garment she was dressed in was stained with drool, milk, and God-knows-what. And if she peed half as much as a puppy she'd be wet too. He looked around. No sign of diapers. But he knew that there were plenty of kitchen towels in a drawer. Laying her carefully on the kitchen table, he took off and discarded the old diaper, then folded a towel between her legs and sealed the sides with chakra. After doing the same with a supermarket bag to waterproof it he decided that yes, it would definitely do. Now for the clothes. He replaced her sleeper with another towel twisted around her small body like a toga.

As he stooped to pick her up, her eyes made contact with his… and she smiled. The corners of her pink rosebud lips lifted and her mouth gaped open, showing red toothless gums. Well it was certainly cute, he'd give her that, but Iruka was wrong. He still preferred puppies.

Iruka found him he settled on the couch in the living room feeding Keshi a bottle of formula. He stood in the doorway and watched for a few moments as the child slurped and guzzled and Kakashi used the corner of a towel to blot the dribbles from her chin. He left the room and returned holding a soft muslin square.

"Here, we have cloths for that, the other mothers call them drool rags. Drape it over your shoulder when you burp her too, in case she spits up."

Drool rag? Spits up? Puppies were sounding better and better all the time. "Hey what do you mean _other mothers?"_

His question went unanswered. "Kakashi, what on earth do you have her dressed in?"

"Just towels. It's all I could find to fit."

"Well it's brilliant, but don't you dare take her out in public like that. We _do_ have baby clothes you know. There's a box of them in the bedroom closet that some of the kid's parents scrounged up for us. Diapers too. And don't forget to give her a bath."

The clock above the door caught his eye. "Oh my God the time!"

Iruka ran his fingers through two sets of fluffy white hair kissed the cheek below the fuller, fluffier of them, and vanished in a cloud of smoke.

By the time the bottle was gone Keshi was asleep again, so Kakashi took her back to her crib and crawled back into bed. With any luck she'd be out until noon, apparently this apple hadn't fallen very far from the tree at all.

When Iruka came home at lunchtime to check on them, they were in the bathtub together. The baby was sprawled face down on Kakashi's chest, a patch of pink flesh against his white as he smoothed baby wash over both of them.

"Well I see you're determined to let her see you naked, but I'm glad you two are bonding."

Kakashi rinsed her off then handed her to him. "Iruka, she's going to see plenty of man flesh sooner or later. Especially if she shares a bedroom with us."

As if to rub it in, he stood up… giving Iruka a full frontal view. The other man couldn't help but devour him with his eyes. They'd been apart for more than two weeks and the sight was a _very _significant test to his self-control.

"Well I have to get back to school."

He blushed as he engulfed the little child in a bath towel before handing her back. "But if you want to you could move her crib into the living room."

They really didn't need to be in the same room, he reasoned. They were ninjas, they could hear a sparrow land on a roof across the street if they wanted to. His eyes darted up and the blush deepened from pink to crimson.

"Before tonight."

He was rewarded with a broad grin and a quick grope, although how, when the other man's hands didn't leave the baby, was a mystery.

"Kakashi! Stop you're making me wet!"

"Just wet?" He felt a firm squeeze to his crotch.

Iruka swallowed. "Cut it out. I have to go back to roomful of kids."

"Then it's a good day to practice distraction techniques."

If Kakashi hadn't been holding the baby Iruka would have hit him, but he settled for a glare, as he backed away out of range. If there was an 'out of range' with this man.

"By the way, the other teachers at the academy gave us a stroller, as a baby gift. I thought you could use it when you take in your report. It's outside the door." Then with speed that would be impressive in any other company, he went back to kiss Keshi's fluffy pink head, and vanished. Kakashi watched the wisps of smoke fade away then took his soft bundle into the bedroom to dress them both.

Getting the kid into real clothes was not so easy. Her short limbs were unexpectedly soft, and pushing them in the outfit he'd selected was like trying to poke worms into their holes. The towels had been _so_ much easier, but not a possibility. Iruka would be certain to find out sooner or later. After a few tries he turned the one-piece garment inside out then rolled it onto her, like peeling a banana in reverse, then pulled her arms and legs through from outside. Now for the stroller.

As Iruka had told him, it was just outside the door. An elaborate cart, like those he'd often seen people in the village using to transport babies. But it would be a real pain to carry over the rooftops. Surely someone must have come up with a better idea. Well he wasn't a genius for nothing. He took one of the cloth strips that he used for his leg bindings and wrapped it around them both. Another lashed over his shoulder, between her legs, around his waist, then back over the other shoulder, secured her firmly in place against his chest. He fastened a second weapons holster onto his other thigh and armed it with a bottle of formula and two fresh diapers. After a moment's thought he added a 'drool rag'.

As he slipped on his jacket he leaned down to kiss the top of her head. She wiggled her arms and legs in what he took to be appreciation. This time he was the one that smiled. Maybe Iruka was right, maybe he was starting to bond.

"Come on then kid, your very first mission, to deliver a mission report. Just don't spit upon the old lady, or even worse, on her pig."


	4. Chapter 4

Within a few months, life in the unconventional Umino/Hatake family had settled into a comfortable routine. The little princess had expanded her territory from one corner of the living room, until it had taken over the entire apartment. And beyond. A grandmotherly neighbour was equipped and on call to pick her up from the village nursery and keep her overnight if necessary, if neither of her fathers could. And both Naruto and Sakura had a few plushy shuriken and kunai, alongside their harder, sharper, versions, just in case.

Even Maito Gai maintained an impressive stash of toys, hoping to be included in the list of potential babysitters. Although after Keshi's first visit with him, that seemed unlikely. Maybe it was the eyebrows, maybe his volume, or maybe just his size. But she screamed the moment he opened the door to welcome them in, and didn't stop screaming until she was safely back at home.

"Well the kid's got good instincts, I'll give her that." Kakashi said smugly, as he shushed and cooed. Trying to sooth away the sobs that were still jolting her limp body.

Iruka stretched out on the couch and watched them. The fearless assassin, seated in a pink rocking-chair decorated with pictures of white fluffy bunnies, cradling the tearstained child. He felt so full of love that he was sure he would burst any minute.

"I'm sure Gai meant well. He bought her a cake, and that outfit he gave her is sort of…sort of…"

Kakashi snorted as the look in his visible eye hardened to steely grey.

"Iruka, I do hope you aren't trying to say cute. No child of mine will ever wear pink spandex. And cake… cake! And it was covered in pistachio nuts. She could have choked to death. I told him over and over that she's only just started eating rice porridge."

Iruka tried to stifle his amusement, although at the time he'd been just as enraged. "He was only trying to cheer her up."

"Some chance! I'd scream too if Maito Gai was trying to shove green encrusted goop down my throat."

Iruka pulled himself off the couch and knelt on the floor facing him. "Don't worry. Daddy Two will save you both from the scary big green man."

Kakashi couldn't resist a grin. "I'll hold you to that next time he challenges me."

The grin was returned, doublesize. "Shh, she's asleep. Let me help you put her to bed and you can hold me now if you like. In fact you can hold me all night long."

The next morning Kakashi woke first. As always he was the first to detect the change in Keshi's chakra as she started the abrupt change in consciousness from 'sleeping like a baby' to 'writhing squawking mass of hunger and various other needs'. But today, he felt something different. Something excited, shivery.

He dashed to the bedroom door, faster than any human eye could follow, pausing only to grab the robe that Iruka insisted he wear about the house.

"Iruka! Come here, quickly!"

The other man woke in a panic and fell out of bed in a tangle of bedsheets. In a most unninja-like fashion.

"What… what is it? Is she sick?" He threw himself towards the doorway, still naked, hair disheveled. "I swear she's had one cold after another since we put her in that nursery."

Kakashi shot out an arm to bar his way.

"Look. She's sitting up. All by herself. She's a genius, a prodigy. Have you any idea how much muscle control and balance that takes?"

The little child was indeed sitting, grinning wide enough to display the single tooth in her lower jaw, and batting at the dolphin mobile hanging over her crib. The one that Kakashi had brought home with so much pride that Iruka had never been able to tell him how much he truly loathed it. Although he had taken it upon himself to personally sabotage its little music box, that now no longer played 'Under the Sea'. Keshi turned towards her audience, cooed and burped loudly.

Iruka reached for his robe, slipped it on, then reached for his partner. Not sure whether to hit him for scaring him or hug him for being just so damn lovable.

"I… I don't think that necessarily means she's a genius. I think it's age appropriate, for them to sit at around six or seven months."

"Not that it means she isn't." He added hastily. "I mean we don't actually know exactly how old she is."

The acknowledged genius's brow furrowed. "Then how will we know when to have her party?"

"Her what?"

"Her birthday party. If we don't know when her birthday is, then how will we know when to have it?"

Iruka hugged him. Damn lovable and even more damn adorable. Worth any number of scary awakenings. "We'll work something out. By the way, do you have a mission today?"

"Yes, with the kids. But it's local, we should be back before dark. I told them to be ready to go at five."

Iruka blinked then glanced at the clock to confirm his suspicions. "But Kakashi it's almost seven."

"Good, that means we still have plenty of time for breakfast."

This time the choice was _much_ easier. Iruka hit him.

Naruto and Sakura watched the sunrise from the bridge, ate their breakfast and chatted amiably. 'Waiting for Kakshi-sensei' had become an enjoyable ritual for them, a chance to catch up on gossip and on their friendship, after their years apart. And one they would seriously miss if Kakashi actually showed up on time.

They were not disappointed.

"Yo."

"You're late." Naruto said casually. Barely looking up from the plum-studded riceballs Sakura had made for him.

"Well… you see a beautiful young maiden needed my help. She'd been terrified by a hideous green ogre and refused to leave her home unless I promised to personally escort her."

Sakura bit her tongue to hold in a giggle. So the visit with Gai hadn't gone so well. "Couldn't Iruka-sensei have dropped her off on his way to school?"

"No. He insisted on finding Gai and apologising. He felt some of the things I said yesterday might have been unnecessarily… harsh. Particularly my suggestions for measures that should be taken to make sure that he never has children of his own."

Naruto winced and crossed his legs. "So about this mission. Where are we going?"

"Out to the border on the Northwest. Some traps have been sprung and some barriers breached. Probably just animals but we have to check it out."

"Couldn't the regular patrol do it?"

Kakashi hopped onto the rail of the bridge and crouched there smiling, his eye curving into its characteristic crescent. "I'm sure Tsunade-sama has her reasons for sending Team Kakashi."

The two young ninjas suddenly felt very grim as they packed away the remains of their meal. They both understood everything that that implied. Kakashi was one of the few shinobi still active in the field, who had fought in the war against Hidden Stone. Although they were now officially at peace, relations between Leaf and Stone had never exactly been good.

Depending on what they found out on the border, they may have just got a whole lot worse.


	5. Chapter 5

Team Kakashi made good time, darting through the forest, hiding their fluid movements with the shifting shadows of the trees. Moving from the ground to the treetops and back, in a three dimensional path that took them in the fastest, if not the straightest, line. They didn't use stealth, or any other means to mask their presence. In Fire Country at least, three Leaf Shinobi who were clearly going somewhere, would attract little enough attention.

A few miles from the border Kakashi signaled for them to stop, where a shallow stream molded the growth of trees into a line along its banks, forming a natural barrier. Naruto and Sakura dropped into place, each taking up a defensive stance beside him.

He pointed to a line hanging from a limb a hundred yards ahead. "Cut."

They all moved closer to inspect the tangle of attached wires, woven through the trees like the work of an extremely large and exceedingly demented spider.

"Very carefully done, but it doesn't look like the work of anyone from Stone."

"Why not Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, always anxious for any opportunity to learn.

"Because it must have taken hours to work out which was the main line and sever it like that, and… they wasted their time. This kind of trap is designed to detect infiltration, not prevent it. By cutting it they set it off just as surely as if they'd just walked right through. We've been using traps similar to this along the border for as long as I can remember, I'd be very surprised if Stonedidn't understand how they work by now."

"Oh, so if you don't think it was Hidden Stone, who _do_ you suspect?"

Kakashi scratched the back of his head. Where to begin?

"Well there are several possibilities. Of course it could still be Stone, investing a few hours to throw us off the track. Slipping in a few spies or a raiding party and hoping we'll assume they're just renegades passing through. Or it could be spies from another country. Cloud is the most likely, they're particularly good at this kind of careful work. Their traps are a nightmare to dismantle. But they might have infiltrated Fire Country from the Stone border, not their own, so that we'll suspect Stone, not them. Or again to make us suspect renegades, but to throw our investigation in _this _direction so we won't be too tempted to check out what's going on over where they are, in the East. Or, of course, it could _actually_ be renegades passing through.

Naruto scratched his nose. "Well shit, that narrows it down a lot. So it could be anyone from anywhere. I'd have thought the Old Lady knew that much before she sent us out here."

"Mmm, maybe. Let's see what other information they left behind."

Kakashi parted a patch of ferns revealing a large muddy footprint. "Sandals, not boots."

He glanced around and then touched a smear of mud on the trunk of a nearby tree. "Leaf ninjas. Or at least one of them is."

Naruto took a leap from the fern to the tree. "Yep, that's just what I would have done, and then… over here." He jumped onto a horizontal branch thirty feet away.

"Yep. There's mud up here too."

Sakura clasped her hands together. "Naruto, that's really good." Then, unwilling to be outdone, she looked around too.

"There were more of them, look the ground is scuffed up just a bit."

Kakshi crouched and eyed the forest floor where she'd pointed, very closely. "You're right Sakura. They were trying very hard not to leave tracks, and walking single file, but they're used to walking on harder ground. Three or four of them by the look of it."

He pulled himself effortlessly to his feet. "One Leaf nin in the trees, pointing the way and others from somewhere else, on the ground. So… shall we follow? They seem to be going our way."

All signs of disturbance in the soil vanished a few feet from the stream, as the ground became dryer and firmer. But Kakashi seemed completely unfazed. He set off towards home, then looked back, his eye curved into a smile. "Coming?"

It took them more than twice as long for the return trip because the trail they were following, or rather that Kakashi was following while the others followed him, backtracked and detoured constantly. About ten miles from the village he stopped, pointed to a tree fifty yards ahead, and disappeared into the shadows. Almost immediately Naruto and Sakura saw it too, the barest movement of its leaves, almost indistinguishable from the flutter of the evening breeze. They took up attack positions on the ground, primed for action. Kakshi was already in the tree with a kunai pressed under the man's armour, poised to slash his right kidney.

"H… Hatake-san?"

Kakashi took in the disheveled mop of black hair and the smell of ink and paper. "Kotetsu?'

They leapt from the tree together. "What the hell are you thinking of, creeping up on us like that?"

Naruto's welcoming grin froze as he saw the expression on the chuunin's face. "Kotetsu-san, what…?"

Kotetsu gave the two teens the briefest bow of acknowledgement, then turned back to Kakashi.

"Hatake-san, there was a… an attack, on the nursery. At first it seemed completely random, I mean it's not exactly a strategic target or anything. No one realised who they were going for until…"

Kakashi felt his blood run cold. "They took Keshi!"

The messenger nodded silently, either disregarding or unable to prevent, the way his anxiety was flooding the area.

"Does Iruka know yet? Where is he?"

The pained flavour of Kotetsu's chakra changed almost imperceptibly. He was a good shinobi and had excellent control over his outer emotions, the muscles in his face stayed frozen. But behind his eyes it was clear that he had withdrawn to a safer place inside himself. Kakashi could read men well enough to know exactly what that meant.

"Shit."

The chuunin averted his gaze to the ground.

"Where was he when he was last seen?"

The mop of dark hair rippled as Kotetsu shook his head.

"Shit. He'll get himself killed."

Kakashi was about to take off when Naruto called out to him. "Kakashi-sensei, do you want us to keep following this trail?"

His voice came out harsher than he'd intended. "Don't bother, go back with Kotetsu-san. We _know _where they were going. What I have to find out is where they are now."

A moment later there was nothing where he'd been standing but a cloud of white vapour and a swirl of leaves.


	6. Chapter 6

The nursery was almost empty. Konoha's anxious parents had already snatched away their precious children and the few remaining staff stood huddled close to the door. They watched Kakashi materialise and shrank back as he swept past them. If he didn't want to talk, then neither did they. Their feelings were divided between desperate sympathy for a man whose baby daughter had just been kidnapped, and mind numbing terror of a dangerous killer who had a good case for blaming _them_ for the kidnapping.

Kakashi scouted the building, sweeping through each room with chilling efficiency that few within Konoha had ever seen. Of course everyone in the village knew his reputation as a top elite jounin, but he had successfully remained almost invisible to most of its residents. And even those who saw him almost daily had never before been allowed more than a glimpse of the man behind the lazy porn-reading slouch.

The nursery was a wreck, abruptly changed from the kind of disorder left in the wake of happy toddlers and crawlers, to a much more sinister form of chaos. The colourful toys that scattered the floors were shattered, and stuffing from plushies lay around in drifts, as if they had been ritually disemboweled. Kakashi took it all in with a single glance, analysing and assessing the jutsus that would have created just this kind of damage.

"Here… this window…" He flicked a finger towards it, a supremely minimal gesture typical of a jounin in full mission mode.

It had everyone's instant undivided attention.

The window, if it could still be called that, was a gaping hole with a wooden frame. Crystals of glass covered the ground like a king's ransom in diamonds.

The nursery director, a plump middle-aged woman who could only be described as motherly, appeared at his side with speed that would have done a summons proud. Kakashi didn't spare her a glance.

"Did they use it to get in or to get out."

"Er… both I think Hatake-sama. They came from this direction and left the same way. I'm so sorry… it was all so fast."

"Yes. I'm sorry too. And Iruka-sensei, where was he?"

"Well he arrived within a few minutes, to pick little Keshi up. Everything was still… I think he was the first one to realise what had happened."

Kakashi fixed her with the cold glare of his one exposed eye. He knew the effect it would have, and somewhere deep inside he regretted it. But now was not the time for small regrets.

"I want you to think about this very carefully. How much ahead of him were they… how long between when they took off and when he took off after them?"

The woman was pretty tough, but then she'd have to be, dealing with shinobi parents. She didn't even wet herself, although her fear flooded the room to a degree that was almost choking. "Er… five minutes, ten at the most."

Shit. Then unless they way outranked him he'd already caught up with them. Kakashi wasn't sure which was worse. The nursery director opened her mouth, perhaps to offer a suggestion, but he was gone.

Whoever they were, they were aiming for speed, not stealth. They'd left a trail a gennin could follow. And that was very very bad. It meant they aimed to get across the border before there was a chance for a team to be thrown together to follow.

His mind worked in overdrive, barely bothering to take conscious note of where he was being led.

Shit. They'd planned everything. Springing those traps to pull him as far from home as possible… and carefully dismantling them too. Was that so they'd be able to get back past them again, undetected?

His train of thought hit a wall with a screaming crunch.

In which case, why blaze a path as clear as a trail of chalk arrows? And wasn't this path suspiciously familiar? A quick glance confirmed that it was the exact path he'd been following with his team less than an hour before. Of course hiding your tracks within other tracks was one of the most elementary forms of shinobi stealth, but still…

A few miles further he stopped again. There'd been a fight here recently. Much too recently.

Broken branches bled sap onto the scorched ground, and his nose prickled at the sharp sting from the chakra smoke still hanging in the air. But there was something else here too, something that was much more sinister. It was almost undetectable beneath all the energy still dissipating in the area, but a corpse had been destroyed here. And not by Konoha techniques either. It was far more thorough and subtle than anything he had ever come across before.

Kakashi blinked, and swallowed hard, resisting the urge to collapse onto his knees and scream. Was this tiny disturbance all he would ever find of Iruka?

Pushing his personal feeling aside he continued, right now his job was to hunt, not to grieve. But something still gnawed at the back of his mind. He ran back and circled around the battle site twice. The third time he caught it, tracks going off to the east, hidden in all the mess and disruption. So the dismantled traps were so that no one would know that they _hadn't_ crossed back over the western border.

The trail was broken and heavily disguised, but it just felt right. They were the kind of tracks almost no one else could follow, the kind left by top class spies… and kidnappers. Kakashi allowed himself a vindictive smirk.

He had them now.


	7. Chapter 7

A branch snapped with the characteristic crack of dead wood and Kakashi's one exposed eye, sharper than most people's two, caught sight of something. Finally!

He'd been tracking for hours and was starting to fear that he'd lost their trail, but only a ninja moved like that. And not one from Konoha either, a Leaf nin would never have made such a clumsy move. Kakashi melted into the canopy of the ash where he was currently poised, and watched the androgynous figure. Was it young woman? Or a beautiful youth? Well whoever it was had made a critical mistake, because they'd alerted him to the exact position of the group he had been seeking.

His shuriken hit and he caught the falling body before another twig could break. He wedged it into a forked branch and looked closely. So it was a woman, and her headband bore the mark of sound. It figured… no one understood corpses better than Orochimaru. If _he_ was the one who'd perfected that clean-up jutsu it was a wonder it was detectable at all. Kakashi knew only too well that it was the Snake Sannin's experiments on corpses that had made him an outlaw in Konoha. And not just corpses, his stomach tightened into a knot… Konoha babies too.

Once he had enough information to perform a convincing henge, Kakashi transformed into the Sound Konoichi. With steely discipline he took stock of the situation.

There were four shinobi below him, one behind, three more up front, winding their way through the trees in a single line. But only one of them knew how to move in the forest. Two possibilities, either the traitor was still with them or, he hardly dared hope… it was Iruka. He strained to see but his line of vision was too obscured by the dense undergrowth. If it was Iruka, he'd be holding Keshi, that was the only possible reason they'd have let him live. They were in a hurry and a quiet baby would slow them down less than a screaming one.

Dropping out of the tree Kakashi fell into place behind the last of them, a bear of a man with spiky yellow hair. Except above his left ear, where the scar of an old burn had left his scalp pink and naked.

The blond giant turned to acknowledge Kakashi's presence and grunted. "So you've given up on try to impress that pretty-boy monkey from Konoha. I told you that you were wasting your time swinging through the trees. That bastard wouldn't give the time of day to someone like you…snotty little shit."

Kakashi smiled in reply, he couldn't risk speaking because he had no idea what the woman sounded like. The man's eyes hardened with understanding.

Shit, busted. Just his luck to henge into a damn gossip.

The group ahead of them stepped into a pool of sunlight where the canopy had been broken by a fallen tree. He only had a fraction of a second to take in the scene, but it was all he needed. Instantly the air crackled with electrical energy, sending jagged forks of plasma from each of his fingertips, the sharp tang of ozone stung the air.

Then it was all over, in a flash. Literally.

He stepped over the closest corpse, then strode over to the man crouched between the two others, crouched very low. As if to shield something from harm, something that he valued more than his own life. And not for the first time, Kakashi was familiar enough with the scar. He used a kunai to cut away the cloth that was bound around Iruka's head and gently pulled him up by the shoulders, so that they were facing each other, one kneeling the other crouching.

"Iruka, it's okay now. It's me… you're safe."

The younger man blinked against the sudden invasion of sunlight and used his forearms to pull his blanket-wrapped bundle closer to his chest. The movement drew Kakashi's attention to his hands. They were wrong, horribly wrong, hanging limply like plucked dead birds in a butcher's window.

"God Iruka! What did these fiends do?"

"Kakashi? It… it's ok, don't get upset, please. They just broke my fingers so that I couldn't form seals. But Keshi's not hurt at all. Were ok really… both of us."

Kakashi held out his arms in a silent demand to be given the baby. He snuggled her against his shoulder, then used his other hand to take Iruka's wrists, one at a time and gently kissed each swollen purple digit. As his lips touched, rage compounded and multiplied inside, spilling beyond his control, so that even the cicadas and crickets fell silent and scurried for cover. Keshi, who had been taking everything in, in a state of dazed glassy-eyed terror, snuffled and started to wail. Apparently bewildered by the furious power she could sense from her father, the habitually calm, never so much as flustered, one of her two fathers.

Iruka was almost as scared. "Kakashi! Please… stop!"

Kakashi was still struggling to suppress the image of his proud feisty lover, passively holding out his hands to have his fingers snapped, one by one.

He took a deep breath, he could handle this, he'd handled worse. "Right, I'm sorry. Who was it from Leaf Iruka? Who was the traitor?"

Iruka forced a thin unhappy smile. "I didn't get a chance to see before they blindfolded me. I just saw two of these, with the mark of sound. I killed one of them, almost got her away…" His words faded. Yeah, almost… killed one of four or five… He'd failed, miserably, and they both knew it.

They walked back to Konoha in silence, in the added gloom of the fading light, Kakashi holding the baby and Iruka by his side.

Their first stop was the hospital. Iruka stayed to get his hands treated and Kakashi took Keshi to a children's medic for a thorough check. As he'd expected she was unharmed. In the words of the medic, "the bonniest and healthiest child he'd seen in a very long time."

It was completely dark when Iruka arrived home several hours later. Long after Keshi had been fed, bathed and snuggled into her crib with an unusual abundance of hugs and a pitiful attempt at a lullaby. He knocked at the door, feeling foolish at being unable to turn the door handle with his bandaged hands. Kakashi let him in without a word and he followed him into the kitchen.

"Soup?"

Iruka just blinked, trying to make sense of the random word.

"Would you like me to heat up some soup? I already had some."

Right soup… food, it must be some time since he'd last eaten. "Er, yes thanks. As long as you don't mind me drinking it out of a bowl or a cup. I won't be able to use chopsticks for a day or two."

Ignoring the packaged ramen, Kakashi opened a can of soup, poured it into a large china bowl and put it into the microwave. When it was hot he put it on the kitchen table with a napkin and a spoon. He glanced at Iruka's bandages, picked up the spoon and put it back in the drawer.

To Iruka the meaningless action seemed like a reprimand. He sat in the chair next to the bowl. His stomach was too tense to feel hunger, but sipping the hot liquid gave him an excuse not to talk. Kakashi sat opposite him, chewing at a thumbnail, his other hand lying clenched on the table.

The silence went from strained to uncomfortable. By the time it had reached painful, Iruka couldn't take anymore.

"So what do we do now? Do you think we can still trust the nursery, or should we try to find something else?"

Kakashi closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them again. Without the cover of his mask his jaw muscles flexed, grinding out his tension.

Iruka couldn't look. Part of him wished the other man would just yell like anyone else and be done with it.

"Kakashi, please. We have to talk about this. I'll be able to write again in a couple of days so I'll be expected to go back to work."

"Yes we should talk." Kakashi's voice was controlled and steady, too controlled. "What the hell did you think you were doing, running off like that? There was no reason for you to get yourself involved."

He slammed his fists into the table, making the soup dish jump and the salt fall over. Spilling a small pile of its contents, a tiny white pyramid, onto the polished blond wood.

"You're a fucking teacher, Iruka, not ANBU."

_Now_ he was shouting.

Keshi, who had been sleeping fitfully, let out an ear-piercing wail in the next room.

Iruka sprang to his feet. "Shit Kakshi, now you've woken her up. Keep it down can't you, you're frightening her."

Kakashi clawed his hands into the wood, leaving deep finger-shaped gouges. But his voice was obediently low.

"Frighten? You can't even imagine frightened. What would have happened if I hadn't got here before you were across the border? Don't you realise that I could have lost both of you?"

Keshi continued to fill the apartment with loud sobs.

Iruka, torn between comforting his child, and comforting his lover, did neither. He sat back down into his seat and folded his bandaged hands on his lap, as if trying to hide the guilty evidence. He met Kakashi's eye with a furious glare but looked away again immediately. Even he was outmatched by its pained intensity.

It was too much, he lashed out, erupting in fury. If it hurt as he thumped his fist on the table he didn't show it.

"Fuck! I had to get there before you Kakashi. Keshi's a baby, a hostage, she's not worth anything to anyone but us. Obviously you were the one they wanted."

Kakashi's eye opened wide. So that was it! He felt his heart soften and melt. Iruka was just doing what real men do… everything in their power to protect those they love. It didn't matter to him that he was a chuunin and that Kakashi was one of the most powerful jounin in Hidden Leaf. At the time it had probably never even crossed his mind. He was still his lover and Keshi was their child. Iruka would stand between them and Orochimaru, he'd stand between them and the world.

He pushed up his headband to wipe a tear from Obito's eye.

"Iruka, Orochimaru's low but he's not a cheap bounty hunter. He doesn't need hostages, he needs babies, and he wanted our child, my child, to do God knows what to. And once he had her he'd have disposed of you as a minor inconvenience."

Iruka looked into Kakashi's eyes, both eyes this time. One cool blue the other fiery red, but both now filled with nothing but love. He blinked and stood up, then staggered into the next room, as much to cover the guilt and shame he was feeling as to tend to the baby. Kakashi was right, as always. He'd been an idiot. Thinking with his heart, not his head, and breaking every one of the shinobi rules that he taught his students so diligently.

Once Keshi was quiet he brought her back to the kitchen with him, supporting her weight with the crook of one arm while she clung to his neck. He pulled his chair close to the other man and sat down.

"You really do love her don't you?"

Kakashi removed his hands from the ruined table and put one around Keshi and the other around Iruka, nudging his partner's head down onto his shoulder, so that his ponytail tickled against an ear. His grip was iron tight, and he was shaking hard enough to make them all tremble.

Neither man said a single word. Neither needed to. Lips found lips and they kissed urgently, desperately, over the top of their daughter's head.

Slowly the tension left Kakashi's body, and Keshi too finally relaxed enough to slip back into sleep. Kakashi gently lifted her away from Iruka's chest and started to carry her back to her crib.

He looked back towards Iruka, slumped in his chair with his mouth still slightly agape, as if hoping for more.

"Just… just don't ever do anything like that again."


	8. Chapter 8

A/N Sorry about my slowness in getting back to this. I'm currently 7+ months pregnant and I suddenly had a overwhelming horror of all things baby (do you get prepartum depression?). Anyways, over it now and back to looking forward to pukey babies and wet nappies. So please forgive.

T.

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Iruka watched the last of his class scurry out of the classroom door. They had moved so fast when he dismissed them that he could almost believe that the cloud of dust they left in their wake was chakra smoke. Soon enough it would be. It gave him a warm glow inside knowing how many of his former students had already surpassed him. He snatched up his folders of papers, grabbed the daisy Moegi had given him, the rose Hanabi had given him to give to Kakashi, he'd have to watch out for that kid she was clever _and_ cute, and strolled down the hall.

After Keshi had been successfully snatched from the village nursery, her two fathers hadn't been the only ones to demand better security. In fact _all_ the village shinobi had demanded it, loudly. And the solution had been so simple and obvious that it was a wonder no one had considered it before.

Originally the nursery had been relocated to the ninja academy as a simple matter of necessity. Its former building was all but destroyed and there were still, regrettably, unused rooms at the academy. Konoha's population still hadn't fully recovered from the kyuubi attack fifteen years before. The beneficial side effect of its new location, that the village babies were now surrounded by the protective force of all the chuunin academy instructors, the handful of jounin education specialists, and dozens of eager pre-gennins, didn't dawn on anyone until after the fact.

For Iruka it was a Godsend. Not only could he now check up on his daughter whenever he wanted to (every ten minutes for the first few weeks, but now no more than two or three times a day), but the pure convenience of on-site childcare was unbeatable. He opened the playroom door carefully, knowing that she would be waiting just inside. She always crawled over to the door to meet him at the end of the school day, no doubt tipped off by the thunder of feet stampeding out of the building. Clearly she hadn't inherited her other father's unfortunate… indifference to punctuality.

Kashi was seated just inside, a bundle of pink topped by fluffy white spikes. She held her arms stretched towards him, fingers spread and palms thrust forward, in a silent demand to be picked up. Iruka put his small burdens on the table to write his name in the sign-out book, then swept her into his arms and spun her around before hugging her to his chest.

"I'd be a little careful shaking her up too much if I were you Umino-san."

He turned to face the stern teenaged girl on parent pick-up duty. "Oh?"

The girl pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "She's been a bit fussy this afternoon, and there's still that nasty bug going round."

Iruka held his child at arms length and was rewarded by a happy gurgle and a wide wet grin displaying both her teeth. "Really, she seemed okay at lunchtime?"

"Well just FYI, she didn't want her bottle this afternoon and she was cranky at naptime too."

Iruka scrunched his face to deepen his scar as Kashi reached out to touch it, then kissed her forehead and draped her against his shoulder with practiced ease as he retrieved the rest of his stuff. "Thanks for the heads up Ami-chan, I suppose we'll just have to hope for the best."

But the girl wasn't paying attention, she was busy fishing inside the mouth of another of her charges, trying to retrieve whatever fascinating thing it was he'd found on the floor.

Since one hand was full of baby and the other held his flowers, and he had folders tucked under his arm, he unlatched the door with his elbow and backed into it. Suddenly it was pulled open.

"Let me help you out with that."

Even white teeth, senbon twitching between them, stared at him around the door.

"Er thank you Genma-san, she is getting to be quite a handful."

The special jounin fell into step beside him. "Still playing the single parent?"

"Yeah well, we knew they'd be times like this when we took her on, I'm just lucky _I_ don't get sent out too often."

The senbon twitched wildly. "That's what I keep telling Raidou. You two can handle kids because _you_ get to stay in the village. So when's the old dog expected back?"

One glance at Iruka's face made him bite his tongue, Iruka didn't know. So it was one of _those _missions.

Iruka swallowed hard, mentally kicking himself at his lack of discretion before answering brightly, "Soon I hope, it's been three weeks now."

A long beat passed between them, they both knew what that meant. There _were _no three week special missions. There were short ones, a few days travel each way at most and a day or two to get the job done. And there were long ones. Weeks or months spent deep under cover, hiding out in the hills, living on roots and wildlife.

A three week mission was a two week mission gone wrong.

Genma held open the main door to let him through, then, after a moment's hesitation, patted his shoulder. "He'll be fine. He may be soft enough around you and the kid Sensei, but Kakashi's a tough old bastard. Whatever it is he can handle it."

Iruka flashed his eyes to meet the other man's, which were way too piercing and intense. He hoped his voice sounded less shaky than it felt. "Course. Sharigan Hatake, the famous copy ninja, he can handle anything."

Genma's face softened. "Got that right, he's survived living with you this long without you killing him. And now with the kid too…"

He cuffed Iruka's arm again playfully before going on his way. "Hang in there kiddo."

Iruka pulled Keshi a little tighter against him. Just how had he ever survived these long lonely evenings without her?

Iruka had only just cleaned up after their simple meal when it became clear that this evening, at least, would not be dull. He was holding Keshi and dragging her playpen from the kitchen to the living room, so that he could grade papers more comfortably without her crawling out of sight, when she barfed rice cereal all over him. So the girl at the nursery had been right after all. Taking care not to jostle her more, he took her back to the kitchen and started to fill the sink with warm water to bathe her, while he removed her clothes and his shirt and dropped them straight in the washing machine.

Once she was clean and redressed he laid her in her crib, with a bundled blanket to stop her from rolling onto her stomach, and turned his attention to cleaning himself. Showered and wearing fresh sweats, he returned with a bottle of hydration fluid to find her whimpering piteously, and her bed soaked in vomit. Without missing a beat he repeated the whole process… from the beginning.

Eight hours later he was reduced to wearing tee shirts and underwear, and using large bath towels as crib sheets. Keshi was crying more loudly now, as if the pain in her belly was more intense. Iruka was used to dealing with people in pain, even children, but seeing _his_ child in so much distress was almost more than he could bear. He tried his best to comfort her by walking her back and forth, swaying gently. At least that way she relaxed and slept a little between attacks, but that could have just been from exhaustion.

He resisted the temptation to take her to bed with him, although he was exhausted too. He was still a practical man, and his bed sheets were harder to wash, _and_ there was no plastic cover on his mattress. So he did the best he could, cursing his luck that their child would get sick when he was the only one home to deal with it. _And_ when he was already stressed and sleep deprived from the more familiar worries associated with being Sharigan Hatake's significant other. It had already been a very long night and there were still many hours before dawn.

Kakashi slipped in through the window unseen, as if he'd forgotten that normal people had doors for a reason. Iruka turned to see him standing in the middle of the room, still in mission mode, more shadow than flesh. The jounin flinched slightly under the directness of his lover's gaze, as if it stung. Iruka raked his eyes over him, automatically checking for damage. But the relief that was trying to wash over him was abruptly dammed back when Kakashi pulled down his mask and smiled. There was no warmth in that smile.

Iruka sought, and met, his eye, and was shocked even in his current state of half-stupor, to find it glacier cold. The same icy blue as when he'd first come to know him, when Naruto was first made part of his team, ice that was just a visible reflection of the layers that had formed a protective glacier around Kakashi's heart. It had taken Iruka more than a year and a half to melt through that frost and find the gold beneath.

"Kakashi! You okay?"

At that moment Keshi woke from her half slumber on Iruka's shoulder with a piteous sob, to spill a fresh stream of foamy vomit down his shirt. Shit what timing.

Kakashi's pale mouth twitched up at the corners, but this time not even enough to count as a smile. He looked away, knowing that he should do something, help somehow. But the pathetic domesticity of the scene sent physical pain shooting through him, like the cut of a sharp hot wire. "Sorry, I'd offer to take over here, but I'm pretty much all in. I'll just take a shower and go to bed out of your way."

Iruka's eyes narrowed, taking in the infinitesimal change in the slope of Kakashi's shoulders and in the angle of his neck, turning his habitual slouch into a droop. "Like hell you will Hatake. Now just sit down and shut up while I get us both cleaned up again, and wait your fucking turn."

He stomped into the kitchen, stripped off Keshi's sleeper and his tee shirt and threw them onto the pungent pile of bedclothes and sheets next to the washing machine. There wouldn't be enough hot water to do another load, it would have to wait. Then he wiped her off with a warm damp towel and propped her on his shoulder while he mixed a bottle of water with salts and glucose. Finally, when she was redressed, rehydrated, and back in her crib, he turned his attention to the silent man poised on the edge of the pink rocking chair like a trapped wild animal.

Studiously avoiding the feral look in his eye, he pulled Kakashi to his feet and gently started to strip him of his battle gear and uniform. He carefully checked for damage as he went, in what had long since become a familiar ritual. Not that he really expected to find any. He knew only too well that Kakashi's current wounds were to his soul, not his body. But his gentle methodical tracing of fingers over skin served to comfort them both.

That done he stepped out of his boxers, the only garment he was still wearing, and led his partner to the bathroom. He'd already used most of the hot water, but he knew that wasn't the kind of heat his lover needed from him right now. And there should just be enough left to get rid of the grime.

It wasn't until he had been thoroughly shampooed and scrubbed clean that Kakashi spoke again, his flat voice sounding even more hollow in the confines of the shower.

"Just hold me for a while Ruka, make me feel wanted."

Iruka snorted, pulling him close, as cooling water poured over them. "Anyone with a pulse would _want_ you Kakashi. I love you, and don't you dare let that thought get away from you again."

The jounin let himself be held, relaxing into the other man's strong arms, feeling his lean muscular body supporting him. He didn't answer, and they both knew why. In the field he was an emotionless tool, unloving and unloved. Only here, with this man, and with their child, could he afford the luxury of being truly human again. Iruka felt the curve of Kakashi's lips against the tender skin at the crook of his neck, and he knew that despite the almost cold water the ice was melting. Kakashi still wasn't okay, but he would be.

They were at the kitchen table, dried, wrapped in their warm robes, and with Kakashi eating instant ramen, when a strangled cry and the sound of retching summoned Iruka back to the living room.

He kissed Kakashi's forehead, feeling the tickle of his still damp hair. "Go to bed when you're finished, don't worry about the dishes, I'll join you as soon as I can."

Kakashi twirled some noodles around his chopsticks and watched them steam. Comfort food, quick and hot but poor nourishment, like the comfort sex he had once sought out after this kind of mission. That was then. Now he had Iruka, home, family, love. There were two flowers in a glass jar on the table. One reminded him of Iruka, a red rose just starting to relax and uncurl from its tight bud, beautiful, if you could get past the thorns. The other was a wilted daisy that had already dropped most of its white petals onto the pale wood. Suddenly he felt unbearably tired.

He picked up his bowl and drank down the remaining noodles and broth, then stumbled into the bedroom and blissful oblivion.

When Kakashi woke the smell of vomit was gone, replaced by disinfectant, and the washing machine was chugging noisily in the kitchen. The bed beside him was slightly rumpled but quite cold.

Iruka came into the bedroom, already dressed and with his hair neatly tied up. He had his folders and a sheaf of papers tucked under one arm. Obviously he had been waiting for him to wake up before he left for work.

"Can you cope on your own today? I'd stay home but we had four teachers out yesterday and…"

Kakashi noted the bruise dark circles under Iruka's eyes, the man had obviously had a brutal night, and he hadn't helped any coming home in the middle of everything. But he knew that wasn't enough to keep him away from his duties at the academy, the man was still a ninja. "Iruka, I'm fine. Well tired, but I can handle one sick baby."

Iruka sat on the edge of the bed and stroked his lover's alabaster cheek with the back of a hand. Noting how the stubbled skin was stretched thin over the delicate framework of his bones, and the fine lines of tension around his shadowed eyes. It was a lie, he was far from fine and they both knew it. But maybe the human tenderness of taking care of his child was exactly what he needed.

"With any luck she'll sleep most of the day but I've mixed up some bottles of water and left them on the counter just in case. Most of the kids are getting over this in a day or so. She'll be hungry but don't try giving her any formula until she's been able to keep fluid in her stomach for a few hours at least. Trust me, you'll regret it if you do. Two words… projectile vomit."

"Projectile…?"

Iruka flashed a wicked grin before darting away and out of the door. Sharigan Hatake, the famous copy ninja. He could handle anything, right?

"You heard me."


	9. Chapter 9

Kakashi stood before the Hakage's desk, relaxed, slouched, hands in pockets, the very image of rumpled indifference.

The door opened, swinging silently on its hinges and Tsunade strode in, instructing her ANBU to wait outside with a smile and a single nod of her deceptively sweet face. "Sorry to keep you waiting Kakashi-kun. You look tired, everything ok?"

The shinobi blinked slowly, one eyed, hiding his impatience with practiced ease. "Keshi's been sick. We haven't had much sleep in the past few days."

He could feel his mood darkening, obviously she hadn't called him here to chit-chat. And when his leader addressed him as if he was still six years old it could only mean one of two things, she was either feeling sentimental, or guilty. He wasn't much inclined to deal with either right now. "You summoned me Hokage-sama?"

"Er, yes. I promised I'd keep you informed, we've just finished another series of tests."

Another? When would the woman ever be satisfied? "Do you need more samples Hokage-sama?"

"No. We're as satisfied as we can be that Keshi-chan is your biological daughter."

Kakashi knew he shouldn't be feeling the anger that was just starting to slacken its coils in the pit of his stomach. Konoha has been tricked into raising a viper once before, it was the Hokage's job to be cautious. Although he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something she wasn't telling him.

"I knew as soon as I set foot in Thunder Country that the rumours were groundless. Kabuto was never there. In fact there was never any evidence at all to point to a planned infiltration by Sound."

Tsunade picked up a teacup and sighed as she rubbed gently at the dark ring it had left on an official looking scroll. She sipped at the tepid contents, pulled a face, and put it down again. "So you say."

Now it was Kakashi's turn to sigh, but he didn't. This was the sixth time they'd had this conversation. "It's all in my full confidential report Hokage-sama. I followed my usual practice in this kind of situation. Using my cover as a shinobi bodyguard I flirted with all of the women and slept with several. Trust me, if he'd been around the young servant girls would have been the first to notice."

Tsunade emptied the tea onto a withered plant and refilled the cup with something from a bottle that she took from a bottom drawer in her desk.

"But still, Kabuto-san took a very considerable risk, attacking the very heart of Konoha. Now if he had been in Thunder, had some reason to believe the child is his..."

She didn't like it. The potential chaos Thunder Country had faced the previous year was exactly the kind of situation her old teammate liked to take advantage of. Like the leadership vacuum in Sand when the old Kazekage was killed. It would be out of character for Orochimaru _not_ to try to exploit it.

But… she knew better than to question _this_ shinobi's methods. For all his quirks he was one of her very best spies.

Kakashi curved his eye into a smile. Behind his mask it wouldn't matter that it didn't reach the rest of his face. If she hadn't worked it out he'd be damned if he'd tell her. His daughter was a baby, not a lab rat. "Orochimaru's motives have never been easy to understand."

Her lips curved upwards too, more sad than sweet this time, but just as deceptive. "That much is certainly true. Very well you may go. By the way, has Iruka ever asked for any details?"

His expression didn't falter, although he could feel his fingernails cutting into the palm of his left hand. Tsunade could doubt his competence all she liked, but how dare she question Iruka's integrity. "No Hokage-sama. He knows better than to ask anything specific about a mission."

He turned as if to leave, then hesitated. "Not that there's anything to say, but why _don't_ you want me to tell him?"

She drained her cup.

Shit. She'd been trying to avoid this for months. Since that girl had shown up on their doorstep with a white-haired Hatake infant and Iruka had insisted on taking it in. "Because Kakashi-kun, you may not want to accept this, but I've been through his file. Iruka seems to be a fine shinobi now, but there are some er, irregularities in his past that suggest he might be completely dependable." It was _almost_ the whole truth.

This time Kakashi didn't bother to hide his reaction. Not dependable, what the hell was she talking about? Iruka was the most loyal and dependable person he had ever met. Unless… "Surely don't mean… after the fox…? But he was just a child."

"So were you Kakashi, but there's no indication that you became difficult and rebellious."

True, but he had already been a jounin, a warrior who'd survived a war bloody enough to teach him that becoming difficult _never_ made anything easier.

She looked up from pouring herself more of the pungent liquid and seemed surprised to see him still standing there. "Was there something else?"

Yes, she should get her head out of her butt and start appreciating people like Iruka, whose dedication and hard work kept the village functioning.

"Yes. I'd like to move to a small house, something not too far from the academy. Keshi is getting much more active, she needs more space and a garden to play in. I trust you won't object?"

Tsunade put down her cup making a second ring on the document, it would have to be rewritten anyway. She examined him over her tented fingers.

"I suppose I can't really justify acting as if you are just two bachelors any longer. I won't pretend I like it, but I won't object. Just be careful Kakashi-kun, don't get in too deep with this kid. She passed our DNA tests, but from what we know Orochimaru may have the talent to manipulate even that."

Kakashi bowed deeply and turned on his heel to hide his scowl. Great sennin or not, the woman could be denser than Naruto. DNA be damned, it wasn't a few hours in a woman's bed that made a man a father. It was the long days and months of loving and nurturing. The way a child fitted seamlessly into your life so that, only then did you realize what a gaping hollow there must have been before, just waiting to be filled. And he wasn't even a tenth the father Iruka was.

"I'll bear it in mind Hokage-sama."

With that he teleported away, leaving considerably more leaves in his wake than was absolutely necessary. He knew she much she hated it when he left litter all over her office.

He landed in their bedroom to find his two most precious people exactly as he'd left them. Iruka was sleeping on his back, his hair feathered across his pillow and his lips peaked into a little pucker that would be an irresistible temptation to the even most hard-assed prince charming. Keshi was spread face-down on his chest, her little rosebud mouth nestled into the crook of his neck. Like father like daughter, the little minx was a fast learner. That was Iruka's sweetest tenderest part. Well the sweetest not-naughty part, and exactly where he liked _his_ face to be.

Gently easing the child away, he draped her over a shoulder and crouched to wake his sleeping beauty with a kiss. Thanks to Tsunade they were over an hour late, the one time in his life when he wanted to be punctual.

"Get dressed sleepyhead. Going house hunting remember. With any luck she's still wiped out enough for us to get there and back before she starts demanding breakfast.

Brown eyes flickered open, and softened immediately in recognition. Mmm Kashi, you're up, and looking very lively. What time is it?"

Kakashi produced a metal flask from one of his many pockets and put it on the pillow. "Almost noon, and I wasn't given a choice. Mission room coffee, just came from there, that stuff could wake the dead. Just throw on some clothes for now."

Ten minutes later Iruka adjusted the weight of the sleeping child in the carrier strapped to his chest as they made their way though the crooked streets at the heart of Konoha. It was something Kakashi had brought back from a recent mission in Sand, and much more convenient to use than his improvised wrappings.

"I just wish you'd say where it is Kakashi, I don't like big surprises."

True Iruka didn't like big surprises, but Kakashi couldn't resist surprising him anyway, he just looked so goddam cute when he was caught unawares. "Trust me Iruka, you'll love it."

"I do trust you Kakashi, but I just think we should look around a bit first Get some idea of what's available before we take the first thing we like. It will be so much harder to change our minds later."

Kakashi reached for him with the hand that wasn't holding the pink diaper bag decorated with fluffy bunnies. In a less public place he'd have hauled him in and kissed some sense into him, but he settled for brushing their fingertips together.

"You fuss too much, and worry too much. I don't have time to trek all over Konoha looking at every pile of sticks that someone wants to collect rent on, and neither do you."

As he was speaking he led them around yet another corner and stopped in front of a white stone wall.

Iruka looked around in confusion. "What? You mean…"

Kakashi pushed on the wall and a section, which was actually a hidden gate painted to match the stone, swung open. He stepped through with Iruka close behind.

Within the wall stood a small traditional pavilion, its sturdy wooden structure topped by terracotta tiles and nestled into a well tended flower garden. Iruka just stared, then stared some more, pink blush spreading over his cheeks as his mouth drooped open in awe. Just too goddam cute.

"Oh Kakashi, this is it? Really? I… I love it. But are you sure we can afford it."

Now that they were safely out of view Kakashi pulled down his mask, revealing his satisfied smirk in all its glory, wrapped an arm around him and kissed him… hard.

"Yep, completely sure. It's been empty for a long time. The old guy who owns it knew my father. He moved in with his daughter when his wife died years ago, he knows he should have sold it but he couldn't bear to give up her garden. Wanted to know if he could still come and take care of it."

"You mean all this and free gardening. But the house looks perfect, how can it have been deserted?"

"Tenzo came over yesterday and fixed it up a bit. He fenced the pond too, to make it baby safe, so we owe him dinner."

Iruka tweaked his partner's cheeks playfully. "Kakashi-sempai, I must say you've got some useful friends, but you made the deal so you can cook. So when can we move in?"

"Now. Today. Well it still needs your signature but other than that the paperwork's done." Kakashi handed him a ring with a single large key. "The kids are ready to help us move, all of them. Gai too, any chance to improve his strength. Of course we'll have to treat them all to ramen afterwards, so it won't be much of a bargain."

Iruka snaked his fingers through the shorter hair on the back of Kakashi's head and pulled him in for another kiss. As they separated he maintained his grip, tracking the little twitches of emotion on the face that only he was allowed to see. "You know it's a lot like the house that I grew up in, not the same, but similar. My mother had a garden too."

"Happy times?"

"Mmm. But there's no way you could have known that was there?"

Kakashi turned away and led him up the single step to a doorway arched over by climbing vines. His research had paid off.

"Come on, check out the rest. Keshi's room faces west so she won't wake up too early in the morning, and I'll jutsu a stone bench outside her window so that we can sit and watch the sunset after we put her to bed."

He guided Iruka's hand to the lock and they turned the key together. "We'll make our own happy times, lots of them."

They would too. They would be the perfect happy family. He would do everything in his power to make sure that their child had the kind of perfect happy childhood that they had both been denied.

And no one, not even the Hokage, would stop him.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N

There does seem to be a bit of a glut of 'Kakashi and Iruka have a kid' stories right now (sorry I haven't had time to read them, I'm back at school full time and life is insane). And I probably won't be able to update much, if at all, before June. So... let me know if you're interested in me finishing this ol' thing, however slowly, or difficult as it is for me to give up, I'll just let this be the end.

* * *

Naruto pulled the final cardboard box from the back of the giant turtle and tossed it down to Sakura. She staggered back as she barely broke its fall. "Hey watch it! That one's heavy." 

"Oh, heh, sorry. Guess I dunno my own strength once I get going."

The girl sat on the box, head bowed just enough to shadow her eyes behind some unruly locks of hair. Naruto froze, eevn he could tell that something was wrong. He hopped down next to her and tenderly brushed the hair aside, she almost looked as if she was going to cry.

"You know it's strange but it's when we're doing stuff like this that I miss Sasuske-kun the most, even more than on missions with Kakashi-sensei."

Naruto lowered himself to sit beside her. "Yeah I know what you mean. It's kinda like the stuff we used to do as gennins. You know all that D-rank stuff."

Her head drooped further. "He's been gone such a long time now, have you ever thought that he's never even seen Keshi-hime? She's a whole big part of our lives that he doesn't even know about."

Naruto leaned in closer and wrapped an arm around Sakura's shoulder. Then he grinned what he hoped was his brightest and most irresistible grin, and punched the other arm into the air. "That just means we'll have all the more to tell the bastard after we bring him back. Now let's get the rest of this junk into the house. Iruka-sensei promised us ramen when we're done."

Sakura rolled her eyes at Naruto's never-ending ramen obsession but couldn't resist the ghost of a smile too. His enthusiasm was too crazy to _not_ be infectious. She swung her feet to kick at the box under them.

"Ok, you can carry this one then, Mr. 'I don't know my own strength'."

Naruto leapt to his feet at once and snatched up the huge box with Sakura still perched on top. She clung to its sides precariously trying to keep her balance, which wasn't easy considering how hard she was laughing. Tears of amusement mixed with tears of sadness in a roil of emotions that even she couldn't identify.

"Stop you idiot, put me down. Naruto! Put me down right now!"

Across town in the Hokage tower Tsunade wasn't laughing. She was feeling more sober and more grim than she had in a long time. The last of three masked ANBU placed a small wooden chest on her desk, lining it up with the two that were all ready there.

"So this is all of them?"

The cloaked figure leaned forward in a gesture that could be taken as either a bow or a nod.

She frowned and stared at the three little caskets, that's what they were and she already knew it, before turning her attention back to her shinobi. They were good, even she couldn't pick up a trace of emotion from them.

"Very well you may go."

The ANBU bowed as one, their trademark stoop that managed to be comical yet eerily sinister at the same time. As the last of them filed out of the room, Shizune brushed past on her way in.

"So there _were _more."

"Yes but from a different pit, more than a hundred miles from the other, near an old hideout that Orochimaru abandoned several years ago. And judging by the size of the boxes these were younger."

She raised the lid of the chest directly in front of her, slowly, as if she really didn't want to know what was inside. In truth she didn't.

She closed it much more quickly.

"A lot younger, barely more than newborns by the look of it, her skull isn't even closed. But they've been dead longer."

Shizune's eyes widened. "Her? Are you sure they're girls?"

Tsunade snorted in disgust, although her eyes seemed blank, void of any emotion. "No. Not even I can tell the sex of a few bones at a single glance. But all the rest have been."

She flicked a hand over her desk. "Get these to the lab. I'll be down there later to help them work on them."

"No wait…" By now her hands were rubbing little circles at her temples, dragging the skin into surprisingly deep furrows. All at once she looked much closer to her real age than she had in years. "What do you make of it Shizune? Why does every place that we track Orochimaru to have a grave containing the bodies of little girls? And how and why the hell do they all have Hatake DNA?"

Her assistant's eyes fluttered closed and her mouth tightened into a pained expression. "He's already tried to snatch Keshi-chan, and we know that Sound shinobi are still snooping around our borders. He wants something from a Hatake child, a daughter, and it must be very important to him to put so much time and effort into it. But it's still hard for me to believe that these were all Kakashi's children. They couldn't all have been conceived on missions, if he'd been that reckless surely we'd have heard about it long ago."

Tsunade put both hands flat on her desk and pushed herself to standing. She could really use a drink about now. "I have to agree, and it just doesn't seem like him somehow. I mean, I know he cultivates a reputation as a pervert, but even as a kid he took personal loyalty to almost insane levels, and he does seem particularly loyal to Iruka-sensei."

She slid open the bottom drawer of her desk. She was the Hokage dammit, if she wanted a drink she was going to have one. And no hangover in the world could be more painful than delving into one of her old teammates 'little experiments'.

Iruka watched as Kakashi settled their Little Princess in her crib. She was gurgling and jabbering contentedly, full of mashed ramen, and washed clean of the grime she'd coated herself with in a day of crawling around in the debris of the big move. He knew they weren't the tidiest couple, but they _were_ ninjas and order was a natural part of their lives. So Iruka had been amazed at just how many dustbunnies had been lurking behind their furniture, exposed when it was moved from places where it had stood for almost half a decade.

Keshi grinned at them mischievously, then rolled onto her knees and grabbed at the bars of her crib rocking back and forth. Kakashi adjusted her dolphin mobile higher.

"It looks as if she'll be standing soon, then walking, and in terms of control it's all down hill from there."

Iruka looked at them both with a mixture of pride and wonder. How the hell did the man know so much about everything when all he ever read was porn? Then suddenly he bent over clutching at his midsection. "Gah, well I'm glad someone can almost stand. My stomach hurts, that last fish ball was a killer."

Kakashi wrapped an arm around him, not bothering to suppress his chuckle. "I warned you not to compete with Naruto in an eating contest. The surest road to victory in any battle is knowing when to retreat."

Iruka shot him a glance. "Yeah yeah, no one has ever beaten me in a fishball eating contest before."

"Ah, but this is Naruto we're talking about, and he'll surpass us all in the end." Kakashi led him out of the room and across the narrow hall to their own bedroom.

"Here, lie down. Feel better?"

Iruka stretched out at rubbed at his stomach. "Yeah, it's passing." He looked around at their few pieces of furniture. In the larger room it seemed pitifully sparse where it had seemed positively cramped in their old apartment. "The kids did a good job getting everything set up didn't they?"

He hadn't even noticed when Kakashi had lowered himself onto the edge of the bed.

"Mmm, but we should rearrange it a bit, move this closer to the window." He pulled out Iruka's hairband and ran his fingers through the silky locks. "I want to see the morning sun picking out the shine in your hair."

He unbuttoned his shirt and tracked the side of his thumb down the indent between the muscles of his chest. "And see the golden light on all this beautiful golden skin, preferably when it's shining with sweat and trembling with passion."

Iruka relaxed back into the mattress as Kakashi pressed his lips between his pecs. "You silver tongued seducer. By the way what did Tsunade have to say this morning?"

Kakashi sat up and pulled his hands onto his lap. Thinking about their boss was more passionkiller than even he could handle

"Ah, the usual stuff, more questions, more tests. It seems she's finally conceded that Keshi's ours, which is good. As a child of The Leaf she has a cast iron obligation to protect her, but I'm sure there are things she's not telling me."

Irku rolled over to face him. "Oh, like what?

"How would I know? Didn't I just say she's not telling me?" Kakashi wormed an arm around Iruka's waist and breathed into his ear. "But if you like I'll seduce her for you, using my silver tongue, see what I can find out that way."

He skillfully avoided the blow, but the explosion of rage was harder to dodge.

"Fuck you Hatake! Don't joke like that!"

Kakashi was behind him in an instant, gripping both of his flailing hands and pulling them down to his sides. He licked the nape of Iruka's neck and nibbled gently just below his ear. "Any time you like Iruka-sensei. Any time."

"Kakashi! Quit it."

Kakashi repositioned himself, touching their foreheads together and staring into Iruka's eyes with both of his. "You really are angry aren't you? Are you still mad about Keshi, that I had sex with a woman?"

Iruka tried to look away but couldn't. "No of course not… yes, look I understand and all, but it's just… just something I'd rather not think about, ok?"

His anger had passed as quickly as it had arrived and he relaxed a little, trying not to sink too deeply under the spell of that whirling red eye. "Let's not get into a fight on our first night in our new home. Anyway, how could I be mad at anything that gave us Keshi? I'll always love that woman for that, whoever she is."

"But?"

"But… well yes it hurts, thinking about you with someone else."

Kakashi pulled them both down and pressed their lips together, mumbling softly between kisses. "For what it's worth it's always you Iruka, anyone I hold in my arms, anyone I touch and kiss and make love to. This eye is good for that much at least."

Iruka didn't hear him. He was lost in the crimson depths, surrounded by silver words that he could barely comprehend. But it didn't matter.

"Love you Kashi."

"Love you too Ruka."

He'd always known that loving Kakashi came with all kinds of baggage, and in truth he knew that at least half of it was his.

* * *

Well, from the reviews I've got so far it seems a number of you are willing to wait for the rest of the story. Thanks so much for your patience and your input (and sweet encouragement -). Look for the next part early in June.

Tampopo.


	11. Chapter 11

Any other man would have just dropped the cake. But Hatake Kakashi, copy ninja of Konoha, was _not_ any other man.

He had materialised from his ninjutsu, in a suitably impressive swirl of fresh spring leaves and a twist of silver smoke, to see Pakkun flying towards him.

At a quite impressive speed.

Particularly for a dog.

And a dog that for all his unusual attributes, to the best of his knowledge, could _not_ fly.

So… he tossed the cake high in the air, caught the little dog, who was really quite surprisingly heavy for his size, and set him on the ground. Then caught the cake on the palm of one hand and arranged it in a place of honour at the centre of the table that had been set up on the lawn for the occasion.

He took a deep breath as he gathered his wits.

Catch the doggie? He'd never heard of that party game.

But he wasn't about to be given time to ponder.

"What the hell is _that thing _doing here?" Pakkun and Iruka yelled in unison, somehow both getting in his face, from ground level and eye level respectively.

Kakashi looked at the innocent cake, with its dainty pink frosting flowers and Happy Birthday Keshi-hime written in elabourate flourishes of more frosting, then at his summon's and his partner's identical scowls. He furrowed his own brow in puzzlement.

"Don't you like it? We have to have a cake. It isn't a proper party without cake, and… and where else should I put it?"

Iruka sighed. Loudly. "Not the cake you idiot. The goat."

Oh.

"Goat? What goat?"

Iruka sighed again adding a roll of his eyes this time for good measure. He extended a rigid arm and pointed to the shaggy little creature in question. "The goat that came with the horse."

"Oh."

Kakashi swiveled his eye towards the goat nibbling at the petals of his landlord's precious roses. Ena Harkness, an old-fashioned intensely fragrant variety with flowers so dark red that they were almost black. It occurred to him that they were the exact colour of dried blood, perfect for a shinobi's garden.

The goat met his gaze with its demonic yellow eyes and lowered its small… but quite pointed… horns. It was standing next to an even more shaggy Shetland pony, that was tethered to a stone bench.

The pony's head remained buried in a red plastic bucket.

"Koji-san, why is there a goat?

Iruka and Pakkun both turned to where Kakashi had addressed his question, to a little man, shorter than most of Iruka's pre-gennin students, who had just entered the garden through the back gate. He carried a battered Icha Icha Paradise pressed to his nose in one hand and a second plastic bucket in the other.

"Hatake-san? Goat? You mean Trevor?"

He closed the book and tucked it into a back pocket with practiced ease, then set down the bucket which was apparently full of water, next to the animals. "You can't have Caroline without Trevor boss. Trevor's her buddy boy you see, keeps her happy." He lowered his voice conspiratorially, "She can be a bit of a biter otherwise."

He scratched the goat between its ears and slapped the pony's meaty flank as he continued. "But don't you worry none about the kiddies, Caroline's gentle as a lamb around kids. Just as long as your bottom's lower than her eye-level you're perfectly safe. Oh, and you should keep your little doggie clear of Trevor too, he doesn't like dogs, he had a very nasty experience with a dog once."

From a safe distance on the far side of the garden Pakkun glared through half closed eyelids. "I'm not surprised. I'd like to give that little brute a nasty experience it wouldn't forget in a hurry." He twisted round to inspect his assaulted rear, although in truth the only real wound he had suffered was to his pride, and disappeared with a loud pop.

In response to the noise the pony's eye appeared over the top of the bucket for the first time. It was deep golden brown, heavy-lidded, with long dark lashes. The eye was followed by a long solemn face, lips drawn back to reveal yellow, and extremely bitey-looking, teeth. The goat trotted over nuzzled against her chest and Caroline lowered her head to resume chewing.

Iruka fairly bristled with indignation as he yanked Kakashi out of earshot, although who he was afraid of listening, the man, the horse, or the goat, even he wasn't sure.

"Get them out of here." He hissed. "Just pay him and get rid of them. This is a birthday party. We can't have a vicious biting pony around little kids."

"But kids love pony-rides, and you heard what Koji-san said. And Jiraiya recommended him. He would never suggest someone who wasn't safe."

Iruka's eyes narrowed as he morphed into stern teacher mode complete with jutting chin and hands on hips. "Hah, you're willing to trust that arch-pervert's opinion on what is and isn't safe around children?"

Kakashi swallowed, one day he'd have to tell Iruka just what affect that look had on him. One day. Unfortunately, at that moment, their whispered conversation was cut short by the arrival of the first party guest. A two year old civilian girl who lived five houses down the street, complete with her civilian parents, all three done up in their finest festival best.

The mother bowed, looking way too much like a character from a period drama. "I hope you don't mind us just coming in, but no one was answering the door and the gate was open so… Oh Sué, look, a pony!"

The toddler's squee made Caroline look up from her bucket just in time to have her thick neck glomped by pair of chubby pink arms. Trevor ducked his head and stepped respectfully to the side.

"What a wonderful idea to have pony rides, it's so hard to find something suitable for the very little ones, but they all love ponies. And where's the birthday girl?

Iruka blushed as he morphed back to proud father without missing a beat. "I'll get her up from her nap, we didn't want her to get tired and cranky."

Within minutes the party was in full swing. Miniature guests arrived at full toddle, carry, or run and petted Trevor as they waited with varying levels of patience or impatience to be strapped into the throne-like contraption that Koji-san had attached to Caroline's sturdy back.

And they did, as predicted, all love pony rides.

The babies giggled and chortled as they were gently bounced around the garden. The older toddlers shrieked and laughed with glee. Only one little girl was nervous, insisting that her mother walk with her and hold her hand as she was carried on the pony's back. But her mouth remained open the whole time in a wide silent grin.

Juice and soda was spilt over satins and silks, snacks were ground underfoot into the grass, and Iruka watched eagle eyed to make sure that no one got hold of anything they couldn't chew and swallow safely.

Before much longer the teens started to drift in, Naruto and Sakura first, then more and more of Iruka's past students until the party had spread beyond the confines of the walled garden and into the street.

Just as the kiddie party was winding down, that is to say the little dears had either exhausted themselves to the point of collapse, or had wound themselves up enough that quite a few of them had already thrown up on the flower beds, the adults started to arrive. Sué's parents and the other few civilians gathered up their children and held them close, dazzled by the presence of so many of their village's shadowy reasons for existing.

Then the guest of honour swept in, Tsunade accompanied by her customary ANBU escort, and with Tonton tucked under one arm.

She sought out the huddle of jounins, handed her pig off to Shizune and wondered over to where Kakashi was watching from the sidelines. "A word? In private."

He looked around and then opened the door that led inside and into the kitchen. Her ANBU followed but retreated back outside at a flick of her fingers. Kakashi stood in the doorway for a moment, a dark silhouette, before stepping a few feet into the room and gently sliding the door closed behind him. Somehow Tsunade didn't look as if she was about to hand over a birthday gift.

She hesitated then sat at the kitchen table, tenting her fingers together as if she was at her desk. A single deep line formed between her eyebrows. She wasn't comfortable with the way Kakashi towered over her when they were both standing, but sitting while he stood somehow automatically asserted her authority.

"You've known Tenzo-san for some time haven't you Kakashi-san?"

Ah, so that was it. He didn't like where this was leading, no not one bit. "Yes. We were in ANBU together."

"So you know all about the circumstances of his er… birth?"

She watched as Kakashi slouched nonchalantly, so much like his father, as if he had nothing more significant on his mind than whether he had enough milk to last out the week. But she knew better. She knew just how badly he was squirming beneath that calm façade. And she let him. He deserved to twist for a while longer.

There was a tentative tap at the door followed by a cautious whisper. "Kakashi? We're unwrapping the presents and we'll have to cut the cake next. Some of the kids have to go home."

He didn't move so much as a muscle as he answered brightly. "S'okay, just go ahead without us. We'll catch up in a minute."

Tsunade snorted her displeasure. "We have evidence, a good deal of evidence, that Orochimaru has been reviving his old techniques."

So the rumours of Orochimaru leaving a trail of children's corpses were true. "That's certainly bad news, but I don't see how I… "

"We have evidence that he's been trying to create a baby girl. Using cells that can only have come from you."

"From me?"

"Yes. Unless you have a brother or sister I don't know about."

As usual the woman was missing the obvious. "Has he had any success?"

Tsunade took a breath, a deep breath. "Not as far as we can tell, but of course he doesn't have the same resources at his disposal that he had in Konoha, when he was the trusted favourite of the Third. And even then his success rate was limited to one."

She blinked slowly, taking in her shinobi's air of unconnected concern. "You don't seem… surprised. But then you wouldn't show it if you were, would you Kakashi?"

Kakashi let his shoulders slouch a little more. "I'm not sure what you mean Hokage-sama."

"Yes you are Hatake, you know exactly what I mean. How long have you known exactly why Orochimaru wants a child with Hatake DNA? A female child."

"I didn't know he did, until now."

She glared at him with fire in her eyes that would have left anyone else with scorch marks.

He sighed, he might as well say it. "I've suspected for quite a while, since the attempt to kidnap Keshi from the nursery, but I didn't know. I couldn't help wondering if the rumours I was sent to investigate in Thunder had been deliberately planted, by someone who knew the direction my… investigation would take. And what the possible consequences could be."

"And you didn't think you should share this information?"

Right, he'd known it wouldn't be this easy. The pitch of his voice fell by several tones. "I've known Tenzo for a long time. And Naruto too."

Tsunade shook her head. Even when he was trying to be forthright the man spoke in riddles.

"So?"

"There _was _no information, just a feeling. And… I didn't think Konoha would take as much care to protect Keshi, to keep her alive… if my suspicions were right."

Tsunade really really needed to break something. Something large, that would shatter with a satisfying crash, or better yet explode with a force that would shake the whole damn village. She swept her hand across the surface of the table, sending napkins and plastic soda cups cascading onto the floor.

"It's my duty as Hokage to protect all my people. Why the hell would you think I'd treat your child, Sakumo's grandchild any differently?"

For the first time Kakashi showed a flare of emotion. "As you say Hokage-sama, Keshi's my daughter, mine and Iruka's. And we've all experienced the way this village can treat a child that it sees as a threat."

A boisterous chorus of 'Happy Birthday to You' was followed by a deafening roar of cheering and applause. And somehow the volume outside only made the silence that stretched between them more pronounced.

Kakashi watched Tsunade's fury slowly deflate. As soon as he sensed that it had reached a safe enough level he turned on his heel and opened the door. Just in time to see a little pink pig fly past.

Anyone present would have had a hard time saying who shrieked louder, the Hokage or her pet.

"Tonton! My baby!"

Konoha's elite descended on the goat to restrain it as Tsunade raced from the house. …And straight into the pony's line of view.

It was all so quick that with his sharingan eye covered, even Kakashi hardly knew what had happened before Trevor was nuzzling Caroline, Tonton was on the table happily rooting in a mound of shattered cake and pink frosting, and Tsunade was rubbing her bruised and bitten backside.

In the terrified hush that followed, her most unladylike cursing seemed to be the only sound in the village, "#$&$! Shizune! We're leaving!"

She turned to give Kakashi a final glare as she tucked the sticky piglet under her arm. "You Hatakes have always had a talent for…for aggravation."

Kakashi bowed and watched Iruka open the gate for them and the ever present ANBU, spouting apologies and literally on his knees with humiliation. He liked seeing Iruka on his knees, he liked it a lot, but not like this.

He scratched the back of his head and smiled behind his mask at Koji-san. Who was standing, dumbfounded, between the wooden cages Tenzo had just jutsued around his animals.

"So… I take it Trevor doesn't care for pigs very much either."


	12. Chapter 12

As the sun rose in the eastern sky Kakashi watched the grey slot below the window blind transform into a bar of golden light. He inched the sheet towards him, stripping Iruka of his only covering and allowing the sunlight to touch his lover's naked skin. He was rewarded with the best, the most beautiful, view in the universe. A landscape of shadow and gold.

As the sun kissed the rounded peaks of Iruka's shoulders it defined every cut and every curve in high relief, and made every tiny dark hair shine like silk. No wonder the man felt like satin. It highlighted the smooth mounds of his buttocks, turning them into perfect golden orbs. And cast into shadow the long valley of his spine, which was decorated more than marred by the pale crevasse of that precious scar.

He reached and smoothed some loose strands of hair away from the bump at the back of Iruka's neck, watching the sun pick out glimmers of gold and russet in the ebony locks. He circled it once with his middle finger then stroked upwards to massage the little notch at the base of his skull. Iruka groaned softly and rolled over to face him, dark eyes blinking open as he ran his own fingers through the tangled mess of his hair.

"Damn you Kakashi, you stole my hairband again didn't you? You know that it gets all knotted up if I sleep on it wet."

Kakashi was too full of love to pay any mind to Iruka's scolding. "It just fell into my hand during the night. I'll comb it out for you… in the shower." He waggled his eyebrows in a dead on imitation of a certain Toad Sannin of their acquaintance.

"Right. The whole reason I showered last night was so that I'd have more time in the morning. Just watch out that something of yours doesn't fall into my hand during the night."

But kakashi was completely naked, there really wasn't anything he could steal. Lacking anything better Iruka slipped his fingers between them and wrapped them around Kakashi's softest part, which responded immediately by becoming distinctly less soft.

Kakashi melted into the caress. "Ahh, I don't think I want to wait until night."

There was a clunk and a rattle from across the hallway. "Dada oo Dada oo Dada um Dada oo."

Iruka released his grip and sat up. Kakashi pulled him back down and rolled over onto him in a lighthearted attempt to pin him in place. "Ignore her, perhaps she'll go back to sleep."

Iruka wriggled out from beneath him and made for his robe on the back of the door. "Yeah, when did that ever happen? And it's time for me to get going anyway."

Suddenly Kakashi was between him and the door. "We need to make time for us too Iruka. When did we last do anything together, just the two of us?"

'Um, let's see, we've had Keshi almost a year and a half now?"

"Exactly. Let me take you out tonight, on a date, somewhere nice."

"Ah Kakashi, I'd love to but I have these tests, and the lists, the ones for…" Iruka tried to reach past him, only to find his wrist caught in an iron grasp.

"Somewhere nice. We'll get barbeque and sake. I'll get the kids to babysit."

Iruka lowered his trapped hand and stared at the floor. "It's really tempting, maybe next week when I'm…"

Kakashi let go of his hand to cup his face instead, tilting it up so that Iruka was forced to meet his eyes. "I'll even call it a mission and pay them. It's worth it just to piss Naruto off, making him do something D rank."

A tiny smile twitched the corner of Iruka's mouth. "You aren't going to take no for an answer are you?"

"Got it in one Sensei. You know I've always loved you for your mind, sharp as a razor."

Iruka licked his lips and folded his arms around Kakashi's chest, rubbing his groin against the hard muscle of his thigh like a horny dog. My mind eh?

A moment later he was on his back on the floor with a thick layer of copy nin pressing him into the polished wood. "Exactly Iruka-sensei, has anyone ever told you that you have the sexiest mind in Konoha?"

A plaintive wail called them back to the harsh world of parental responsibilities. "Dada oo Dada oo."

The gleam in Iruka's eyes faded from flaming lust to sincere regret and Kakashi knew he was defeated… for now. He pulled them both to their feet then unhooked his robe and slipped it on as Iruka headed for the shower. "I'm coming Princess. You're in for a treat, Daddy One's making breakfast today."

Iruka found them in the kitchen. Kakashi at the table drinking bitter black coffee and Keshi in her high chair eating fistfuls of scrambled egg.

She gave him an eggy grin. "Dada oo!" The palm of her hand glowed as if it was licked by white flame and she slammed it into her plate, showering egg in a circle around her chair. "Hahaha eggs go pow!"

Iruka stared, wide eyed and slack jawed. "Kakashi, look, did you see that?" He brought the flat of his hand down on the table, mimicking her action.

Keshi giggled, and did it again. This time with a much larger flash, that sprayed egg to the far corners of the kitchen. "Pow kapow!"

"See? She's playing with chakra. I couldn't do that until I was nearly five. Look at her control, it's… it's amazing."

The copy ninja smiled, barely looking up from his coffee and leaving Iruka with the distinct impression that he wasn't surprised at all. "Good I'll be able to teach her chidori soon."

He ducked the blow just in time.

"Joke Iruka, joke."

The other man stood over him, hands on hips, visibly seething. "Not a good joke Kakashi, not good at all. Do you have any idea the problems we academy teachers face with kids that have been taught to do jutsus way beyond their level? Jutsus that they can't possibly understand or control properly? Just because some stupid jounin in the family thought it was cute. We had generations… generations of Uchiha's and their fireballs."

Kakashi took a sip of coffee. "Well you don't have to worry about them anymore do you?"

Silence hung in the air like an unpleasantly oily mist.

Iruka swatted it away with one hand. "And don't you dare try to change the subject by distracting me."

"Come on now, I said it was a joke." Kakashi caught the hand and shoved a buttered muffin into it and a mug of coffee into the other. "And don't forget our date. I'll pick you up from the mission room at six." He glanced at the clock and raised an eyebrow. "You'll be late for school Sensei."

Iruka gave him a final glare then teleported away. Kakashi took a broom from the corner of the room and started to sweep up the scrambled egg. Crap, his one last hope had been that Keshi would be a late bloomer. But maybe if all she used chakra for was to fling food around they could still keep it quiet for a while longer.

At a casual glance no one would have noticed anything unusual about the two men eating at a corner table. They would have assumed them to be old friends catching up, maybe even brothers, except for the difference in their colouring. A more observant person however, would have noticed their interlaced fingers and thighs pressed together under the small table, and the way they stared into each other's eyes in the candlelight. And since there _are_ no unobservant ninjas, they were dining at a nondescript little Korean Barbeque, on the wrong side of the river, deep in the civilian district.

"…the cutest most adorable…"

"…but completely useless after a couple of years. It's not as if we're likely to have another."

That got a sharp reaction from the dark haired man. "Hell they'd better not be."

Kakashi drained his sake cup and reached for the bottle. Iruka snatched it away, then relented and refilled it himself, fluttering his eyelashes and bowing his head in some kind of demented geisha impersonation.

Kashi ginned in triumph. "So a full size futon or bed it is. And when Keshi's grown up and gone we can use it as a spare for guests. Or for me when I piss you off too much."

Iruka suddenly looked very sad. Yes, ten more years and she'll be part of a team. She'll have her own life before we know it."

He felt his hand squeezed tighter under the table. "But we'll always be a part of it, just as she'll always be part of ours. Look at us, we came all the way out here to get away and all we've done is talk about her the whole time."

Iruka grinned in agreement. "Then I suppose we might as well go home." He straightened his back and squared his shoulders. "Would you like a shinobi escort sir? It's very late at night for a pretty thing like you to be out on the streets, especially since I can tell that you've been drinking."

Kakashi opened his eyes, well make that eye, very wide and pressed his fingertips together coyly in front of his chest. "I don't know kind sir, shinobi escorts can be very expensive."

Even the most unobservant would have noticed him jump as Iruka groped him under the table. "Don't worry about that my lovely. I'll work out a way for you to… compensate me. Later."

Kakashi grabbed the offending hand, dropped the payment for their meal on the table, and teleported them to the street outside. It seemed he wasn't the only one who'd drunk more than he was used to.

They may not have been completely sober by the time they reached home, but they both recognized the use of chakra even from outside the house. Kakashi teleported into Keshi's room as Iruka ran inside, to find Naruto and Sakura standing next to two crude cardboard patches on the wall of the main room.

"What the Hell? Just what happened here while we were gone? Did you invite all your friends over for a jutsu party?"

The teens looked at him and then each other in silence. When Iruka's face had reached the shade of red that indicated that he was mere moments from losing it, Naruto blinked. "It wasn't us, honest Iruka-sensei. It was Keshi. We were playing with Mr Bunnikins, just you know, throwing him around, and then she threw him right through the wall."

"She used chakra? Enough chakra to throw a stuffed toy through a six inch thick wooden wall?"

Naruto grinned widely, showing all his teeth and wrinkling his whisker marks. "And how, you shoudda seen that thing blow."

"And the other hole?"

"Oh yeah, that was Kittikat. Well we had to see if is it was just a fluke didn't we. After that she looked real tired so we put her to bed. She seemed ok, she is isn't she?"

Kakashi was standing listening from the doorway, deathly white and deathly still. A version of the copy nin that Iruka barely knew, but that Sakura and Naruto recognized only too well. After all they were the ones who were with him on missions.

"Yes she's fine, just sleeping. But you can't tell anyone. This information mustn't leave this room. If it gets out that Keshi has this kind of power, at this age, she'll be in greater danger than ever. We all will."

Surprisingly it was Naruto's face that registered complete understanding. "Right Kakashi-sensei, but surely the Old Lady needs to know."

"Of course. I'll inform Hokage-sama, but it has to be done the right way, and only when I understand exactly what it is I need to tell her."

Naruto nodded and dragged a still stunned Sakura towards the door. "So er… goodnight Iruka-sensei. Kakashi-sensei, guess we'll see you tomorrow." He turned back for an instant, "You aren't gonna take the damages out of our fee are you?"

"No, in fact I'll double it. You can call it hush money."

"Yay! And will you upgrade the mission to C rank too? Doesn't look good for the future hokage to be doing…"

He ducked the lightly tossed kunai and slammed the door shut.

Iruka pulled out the kunai and turned it over in his hand, leaning back into the door. "We do have to tell Tsunade-sama don't we?"

Kakashi pulled down his mask and nodded mutely.

"And then what?"

He shook his head. "We'll pull her out of the nursery, they can deal with a few sparks and flares but they aren't trained to handle anything like this. And we mustn't do any seals around her, none at all, she's a quick learner. If she starts picking up jutsus she can't control…"

In four paces Iruka was wrapped around him, head nestled into his throat and whispering into his ear. "What else did they do Kakashi, with you?"

"Got me a tutor and put me in the academy as soon as I cold speak full sentences. I was a gennin at five, chuunin at six."

"And?"

"I'd hoped to avoid it. Instilling that kind of discipline into a very young child, well lets just say it can't be done gently."

Iruka could feel Kakashi trembling and he pulled away to see his face wet with tears. He brushed them away and stretched to press his lips to his forehead. "Isn't there some other choice?"

"We could seal her chakra, until she's mature enough to handle it. But the marks wouldn't stay hidden all the time. In a ninja village people would know, and it would make them suspicious."

"We could explain."

Kakashi shook his head. "You know that's not the way it works Iruka."

Iruka did know. Ninja prodigies were pushed and encouraged, no matter what the cost to them and their families. It wasn't about happy childhoods, it was about power and survival. He looked at the pain in Kakashi's blue eye. Sometimes the cost was too high.

"I still think it's the way to go."

Kakashi nodded and relaxed a little. "But I'd rather not do it on my own. I was still learning sealing techniques from Sensei when…"

"When he died?"

He nodded again, more slowly. "I'll start tracking Jiraiya down in the morning."

Iruka pulled him into a lingering kiss. "Let's go to bed. I still need payment for an escort mission." He circled the middle finger of his left hand around his nipple, through his shirt. "He was an important man, famous, must have been B rank at least."

Kakashi yanked off his mask and shirt and loosened the buttons on his pants with one hand as he dragged Iruka backwards towards their bedroom. "You did well. It looks as if you got him home safe and happy. I think that might even qualify for some kind of bonus."


	13. Chapter 13

A/N Some minor spoilers for chap 248. Also I know I've taken some liberties with the manga timeline, sorry but it just worked out this way.

Iruka noted the pack waiting by the door as he stepped into the house. He walked past it and the randomly scattered toys and set down his papers on the low table, between a crumpled juice box and a cup half-filled with cold tea. Kakashi was hardly a neat freak but he wasn't normally so lax, this must be big. A cross breeze from the open window puffed out the curtain and lifted the top few sheets into the air before dropping them onto the floor. As Iruka turned back to close the door the tinkle of water and happy giggles rose above the rustling papers. He let them lie where they had landed in the general disorder and made his way to the bathroom.

Inside Kakashi, fully dressed and fully armed, was sitting on the puddled floor next to the tub, with the casual air of someone with nothing better to do in the whole world, blowing soap bubbles. Keshi was splashing in the water, happily destroying the pastel bubble domes as they landed on its surface. It was a game Iruka had taught them, one he remembered his mother playing with him in the bath when he was really much too old to still enjoy such silliness. He'd taught them _both _because Kakashi didn't know any games, other than those used to sharpen skills or to develop the finer points on a genjutsu. It was as if he'd never played, never been allowed to have fun just for the sake of it. The thought still had the power to spark a flash of anger in Iruka's heart.

He would have dearly loved to just stand and watch them for a while, but obviously now wasn't the time.

"I got your message. You have to leave right now?"

Kakashi rose to his feet while dropping the little wand into the bubble solution and screwing on the cap. "Yeah sorry. The three of us are headed for Sand, no time to loose."

The look in Iruka's eyes hoped for more, while making it plain that he didn't expect it.

For an answer Kakashi stroked his partner's cheek then folded him into a loose hug, while still keeping his uncovered eye on the bathtub. "It's no great secret, hell everyone will know soon enough." The volume and tone of his voice didn't change, but his next words felt like steel. "The Akatsuki have taken Gaara."

"Oh." Iruka stiffened and stared at a bubble that had landed in a wet patch on the floor, watching the swirls of colour on its surface change from purple to gold to silver, until the bubble self-destructed into a tiny drop of liquid. "And you're taking Sakura… and Naruto?"

"Yeah sorry." Kakashi pulled back to look at his lover at arm's length, knowing full well that he'd given himself away. That there was more than just the prospect of a dangerous mission on his mind, something so routine would never have caused Sharingan Hatake to be so visibly agitated.

"Iruka, I've been meaning to ask… is there… could I do something so bad that you would hate me for it? No, not hate. Worse than that, something that would make you not love me anymore?"

Iruka's eyes shot up. "Kakashi? …You mean like taking Naruto to the Akatsuki?"

Kakashi's unmasked lipped made an effort at a smile, but didn't seem quite up to it.

"I don't think I could stop him from going after Gaara if I tried, there's a bond between those two."

The tension dissolved from his body, as if he'd made his decision, or resigned himself to his fate. He scooped Keshi out of the water, wrapped her in a towel and pressed the squirming bundle into Iruka's arms. "But yes, in a way, something like that. On second thoughts don't tell me, I don't think I want to know. Here, take good care of her, for both of us."

Then he was gone leaving two kisses on the cheeks of the two people he loved more than life.

Iruka pulled Keshi close and just held her for a long moment. Then he blotted the tears from his eyes and the water from her skin, and rubbed the towel over her hair, combing it through his fingers into a vertical shock, like thistledown. On cue she stood, arms raised, while he got the brush and ink from a shelf over the toilet to repair the faded calligraphy over her chakra points.

"Well little Princess, did Daddy One have time to make you lunch?"

"No. He said I could have cookies?"

Iruka frowned, cookies for lunch? Keshi's wide blue eyes fairly radiated innocence, she was only two but she was already a devious little minx, and quite capable of manipulating the situation to her advantage. But he wouldn't put it past Kakashi to make such an outrageous promise either, not in the mood he'd been in. "One cookie, but real food first."

"Two cookies."

His frown softened into a smile. "Ok two, just this once, now what do you want to wear."

"Um… Ruto suit! Ruto suit!"

Iruka followed the naked toddler as she scrambled into her bedroom, and pulled orange sweats and a matching hoodie out of her closet. All her new clothes had been carefully selected to cover the seals painted on her skin, this outfit was her favourite.

"Do I havta eat vegibles?"

Iruka froze halfway through pulling on her pants. He swatted the tip of her nose gently with the tip of his index finger. "For two cookies? You betcha sweetheart."

Over the course of the next two weeks tiny details of the disaster in Suna filtered over the desert and across the forest to Hidden Leaf. It was whispered that team Gai had interrupted their current mission to join the search. That Gaara's older brother had run foul of the Akatsuki and was lying close to death, and that an ancient Suna witch was involved too. Although no one knew exactly how or why.

Iruka heard them all, he made sure of it, but he didn't have the luxury of dwelling on them. He had problems of his own at home.

Keshi looked like nothing so much as a china doll. Her skin was the colour and texture of white rose petals, with a pink rosebud for her mouth and two pink petal cheeks. Blue eyes cut from the fabric of the sky watched Iruka and his guest from her fuda enclosed playpen. She stretched her chubby arms as if in supplication.

"Daddy Two pick me up pickmeup."

Her voice was a thin plaintive wail as the last of her plastic alphabet blocks combusted in a flash of white and a little mushroom cloud of grey smoke.

Iruka tore his eyes away from her as he forced down the lump forming in his throat and bowed deeply to the bulky man sprawled on the couch. "I can't tell you how grateful I am for your help Jiraiya-sama. I feel terrible letting you be her baby-sitter like this but there's really no one else…"

The sannin waved a notebook at him dismissively. "Glad to help out Sensei, glad to help out. Now get yourself off to your classroom already. Actually it takes me back a few years, although Kakashi was never quite so destructive. Got quite a temper hasn't she?"

Iruka blushed, despite Kakashi's lectures about nature and nurture he couldn't help thinking that Keshi had picked that up from him.

"Yes… um, it's a bad combination, with her chakra abilities and her age. You know terrible twos. It's getting so that I'm afraid to take her out in public… on my own. If she got it in her head to throw a tantrum…"

The temperature of the room seemed to cool by several degrees. "Just when did the seals start to fail?"

Iruka focused on one of the parchment wards attached to Keshi's old playpen, it had recently been pressed back into service, but this time as a gaol. "Three days ago, before the weekend, at least that's when it became obvious. Our old neighbour Kemora-san was watching her for us. She's taken care of her from time to time since she was a baby, almost like an unofficial grandmother. Keshi made a new passway hatch between the kitchen and living room of her apartment."

"Whoa, hole-in-the-wall no jutsu! I'm surprised I didn't hear about it, you know how Tsunade and her cronies like to gossip."

"She didn't tell anyone, thank goodness. Not that we'd sworn her to secrecy or anything, in fact she seemed to think it was all rather amusing. I saw the hole when I went over there after school to pick her up. Kemora-san treated it as if it was an impressive joke. But then again she's known Naruto since he was my student so she's hardly new to chakra damage."

The white-haired sage tapped his notebook. His looked grim, wrong somehow without his usual manic grin.

"Well I'm working on it, got some new stuff from the Hyuugas. Pity this all came up before Kakashi got back, I could use his help. The kid's got a decent brain on him, it would be a better use for it than most of the stuff he wastes his time on. Do you know he once spent six weeks working on summoning just the right accessories for one of his dogs?"

Iruka laughed out loud for the first time since Kakashi had left them. "I could say the same for you Jiraiya-sama, but somehow I don't think Kakashi would agree. He seems to think the stuff you waste your time on is very worthwhile indeed."

"Daddy Two HOLD ME!"

Iruka turned his attention back to his daughter. He leaned over the warded barrier and pulled her into the circle of his arms.

"I'm sorry Princess I have to go to school now. But be a good girl for Jiraiya-sama and maybe we'll all go out and get ramen for dinner." He pulled back and ruffled his fingers through her hair, so much like that other hair that he was missing so much. "Daddy One will be home soon, then we can go out whenever we want to. We'll go to the park and feed the ducks, and you can go to Sué's house and play with her puppy again, you'll like that won't you?"

The little girl let herself fall back onto her bottom with an air of resignation and defeat. "Jira-sama smells funny. Keshi wants Daddy One to come home."

"We all do sweetheart, we all do."


	14. Chapter 14

Umino Iruka was not a man much given to self searching and introspection. Usually he acted and he reacted instinctively to whatever fate threw in his path, preferring to face it head on, rather than to waste time and energy wondering what he should be doing… or could be doing. Usually.

Of course he knew that he'd given up most of his claim on usual long ago, when he'd accepted Kakashi into his heart and his home and, not coincidentally, his bed. Although not necessarily in that order. But somehow it seemed that in the past few weeks, various sources of tension large and small had been gathering in dark alleyways, exchanging secret handshakes, and generally ganging up with the sole purpose of keeping him on edge.

In fact, while he was perfectly honest with himself he'd have to admit that he'd long since crossed the border of uncomfortably on edge and was already fairly deep into the territory of distressed.

The irony, that it was his home life, his normal refuge from stress, that was his current greatest source of tension, was not lost on him. Although, obviously, for a competent but modest academy sensei to find it stressful to be in the middle of a major crisis with his only child, while his much more competent lover was away, could not be considered particularly… unusual.

That morning he'd left Keshi with Jiraiya, as he had every school day for the past two weeks. Naturally he was glad that she had apparently come to terms with her temporary babysitter, in fact she'd been happy to see him. Too happy. Now Iruka _knew_ that the sannin had started taking her with him as he did whatever it was he had to do around the village, and he'd been glad. Really he had. Keshi had been cooped up in the house for much too long for a lively toddler. But he was also starting to have serious doubts about just where Jiraiya was taking her, and what he was doing when they got there.

His discomfort hadn't been eased at all when Keshi had flung herself on the white haired man and said, "Jirajiji, are we going to see pwetty ladies today?"

Somehow he doubted that they'd been perusing the woodcut prints of famous beauties on display at the Konoha library.

The wolfish grin, or had it been sheepish, maybe wolf-in-sheep's-clothingish best summed it up, that Jiraira had shot in his direction hadn't helped much either.

It was pretty obvious all along that arming a notorious pervert like Jiraiya with a cute little chick magnet like Keshi was bound to have… consequences. Iruka had just hoped that Kakashi's dangerous reputation and his own famous temper would keep them in check. But Kakashi wasn't there, and _he_ was hardly in a position to loose his temper with someone who was doing them such a huge favour. All in all it was a recipe for giving an honest and decent parent stomach ulcers.

His only other option, as far as he could see, was to take a leave of absence from the academy until Kakashi got back. And that was likely to fly about as well as a lead duck. Kakashi could be gone for weeks yet, or months. Besides, Iruka was well aware that in the unlikely event that Tsunade agreed it would set a very dangerous precedent, and one that he was as unwilling to see set as anyone else in Konoha. Being a ninja wasn't a job, something that could be hung on a hook along with his chuunin jacket at the end of the workday. It was an identity, and the good of the village came first, every time, without hesitation.

His eyes flickered beyond the papers he was grading as he felt a familiar presence approach his classroom, but most of his attention was still on his class. It had to be. Especially with a roomful of ninja children and a door propped open to allow some cross ventilation.

"Konahamaru, using stealth to fold paper shuriken may be an admirable skill, but not one you are likely to find useful on the battlefield, and therefore _not_ particularly relevant to this essay."

He flipped a thumb towards a receptacle in the corner as he stood and walked towards the door. "Bin them!"

The man he had expected to see was just beyond its frame.

"Kotetsu, what's up?"

The messenger jumped at his sudden appearance. "Oh Iruka, hey. Hokage wants to see you."

Iruka _had _been about to smirk at the reaction, shinobi should not jump when they're startled, as a matter of fact shinobi _shouldn't_ be startled.

Then Kotetsu's words registered on his brain and an unhappy shadow crossed his face. "Now?"

It disappeared just as fast as he leaned back into the classroom and glared at the boy tossing origami stars into the trash container. "The three in your back pocket too Konohamaru. Then sit back down and finish writing."

But the fear that had provoked the shadow wasn't banished as easily.

Kotetsu took a step closer and shrugged. "S'what she said."

"But what about…?" Iruka used a sweep of his eyes to indicate his class, which had suddenly become very intent and unusually focused on their work. They may not be ninjas yet, but they were pretty damn close, and they'd had more than sufficient time to become fine tuned to perilous changes in their teacher's moods.

The shaggy haired chuunin shrugged again. "S'pose I'll just have to handle them until you get back."

Iruka sucked in a breath through his teeth. Kotetsu was good but it would take more than that to stay on top of this crew.

"Well they're writing an essay on the best kinds of weapons and chakra control techniques to use in an unexpected three-on-one battle. That should take them another half an hour or so. After that…"

Kotetsu rested an easy hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. I'll come up with something to keep them busy. Just get going willya, she's in a bad enough mood already."

The teacher took one more look at the lowered heads of his students before staring his fellow chuunin hard in the eye. "Ok, but none of your party tricks. If I hear so much as a rumour that the late Hokage's grandson can blow smoke rings out of his arsehole I _will _know who to blame."

Kotetsu suppressed a snicker as he closed the door behind Iruka's scurrying footsteps. Smoke rings out of his… Yes that was one of his best, and Iruka's eyes the first time he'd demonstrated it, priceless.

Almost at once the impromptu substitute became aware of Konohamaru's hand waving frantically in the air. "Finished Kotetsu-_sensei_."

"Wha.. ? Already?" He walked over and scanned the boy's paper. 'The best kinds of weapons and chakra control techniques to use in an unexpected three-on-one battle.'

Three words were written in bold black letters, 'WOTEVER YOU GOT'.

Oh brother!

Oooooooooooooo

Iruka hurried towards the Hokage tower. Surely Kakashi wasn't… he couldn't be… Kotetsu wouldn't have been so relaxed and lackadaisical if he'd known that something bad had happened. And he would know! He and Izumo, his 'partner in crime' knew every titbit of information that went into or out of that place.

No, Tsunade had just got it into her head to talk to him about something. And she had the sense and sensitivity of roadkill sometimes, pulling him out of his class when he was busy teaching, dumping all those kids on poor Kotetsu, when Kakashi was going up against the Akatsuki, when he was going up against the Akatzuki _with Naruto_, when everyone knew that the Akatzuki wanted…

He found himself outside the Hokage's office and was ushered inside. Tsunade was seated at her desk, a scowl evident on her youthful features. There was a second woman present in the far corner of the room, tall and blond, with piercing blue eyes. A wave of familiarity washed over the teacher and he almost smiled and greeted her, assuming that she was a former student, until he realized that she wasn't. That he had never, in fact, laid eyes her before.

"Iruka-sensei, Kayuga-san, sit!" Tsunade indicated two wooden chairs pulled up against her desk.

"Iruka-sensei!" He was brought back to sharp attention as he was lowering himself into the seat. "I'd like you to meet Kayuga-san. She has been hired to take care of Keshi-chan, of Hatake Keshi."

She gave the woman a warning look that was otherwise unreadable. "Naturally the village will cover the expense as part of its general education budget."

Iruka felt his jaw drop. Take care of? Education? What the hell did that mean? The woman hardly seemed like a high level konoichi, but then looks could be deceiving. No one who didn't know him, and quite a few that did for that matter, would ever take Kakashi to be more than a lazy porn reading slouch.

"Bu…but Hokage-sama, Kakashi and I discussed this. We don't want Keshi to have a tutor, at least not yet. And surely there's someone we know, another jounin, Ebisu-san perhaps… or Kakashi could…"

His voice faltered as his loyalty to his village and his love for his child crashed head on and all his noble ideals shattered into a million pieces. The natural order was for a child to learn chakra control slowly, before they had the power to do very much more than fog up the air with some smoke. It was like giving a little kid a kunai to play with. Dangerous certainly, but a very small child didn't have the strength to hurt themselves or anyone else seriously. And the little cuts and nicks they'd get would be painful enough to teach them respect for dangerous weapons before they did have that kind of strength.

But Keshi's level of chakra wasn't a kunai, it was an explosive tag, a bomb. A fearsome weapon that could be set off at a touch, powerful enough to smash anyone caught in the blast radius. It required an adult level of control, which required an adult level of skill. Which would require hours and hours of rigorous training, every day, enforced by brutal threats and punishments if necessary. And for a child under three it would be necessary.

Iruka could feel his eyes starting to prickle. He didn't want Keshi to be trained as that kind of weapon, not yet.

"Iruka! It's not your decision to make, and anyway, Kayuga-san hasn't been hired as a tutor. She has no skill or training in the ninja arts. She will be Keshi-chan's nanny."

"A nanny?"

He felt himself wilt inside a little more. He didn't want Keshi to have a nanny either. Many of the more powerful and important clans used nannies to raise their kids, he knew because he taught them. He could always tell. They had a remote, sometimes disturbingly distant relationship with their parents, and the last thing he wanted was for himself and Kakashi to be bumped to second place in their daughter's affections.

If Tsunade noticed his reaction she ignored it.

"Yes. Your current babysitting arrangements are unacceptable." She flattened a scroll on her desk. "I've been getting complaints. From the women's bath house. And women's changing rooms and bathrooms at several stores. And dojos."

Iruka didn't need to look to know that they would involve a white haired man and his 'daughter', or perhaps 'granddaughter'. "Just bringing my little girl through, you don't mind, do you?"

"Not only that but during the past six months both you and Kakashi have lost far too many workdays attending to that child's 'special needs'. And Kayuga-san is exceptionally well suited for the job."

Iruka bowed his head. "I'm sorry Hokage-sama."

It wasn't fair. He hadn't missed that many days, four or five at the most, and he'd worked extra hard to make up for it. All his current students were on track to graduate on time. And Kakashi may not have volunteered for any extra missions, but as far as he knew he'd never refused one either.

"Iruka-sensei." Tsunade's voice was soft this time, almost cajoling. "I'm sorry to see that this has come as such a shock for you. And to be honest I'm surprised, it was Kakashi who suggested the idea in the first place."

Iruka was out of his seat in an instant his hands fisted by his sides. "What! Kakashi told you that we wanted a nanny? He wouldn't, not without talking to me. And anyway, how can a civilian possibly be expected to cope with…?"

He faltered, not sure how much he should and shouldn't reveal about his daughter's 'unusual' chakra, and her unfortunate tendency to use it to destroy everything in her path. The woman, Kagura-san, was after all a complete stranger.

Tsunade's irritation was back full force, but there was something underneath it too, something that betrayed an even greater level of discomfort than Iruka's.

"I can't speak for Kakashi, I'll let him explain himself when he gets back, but as I have already said Kayuga-san is particularly well qualified. As for the other matter, Jiraiya has determined that the temporary nature of the previous seals caused them to fail. As they faded some chakra leaked past them and Keshi instinctively used it to find a way to bypass the blockage to her chakra flow. After a while the seals would be useless even when freshly applied. To avoid this happening again we will have to apply a permanent seal, the kind that can only be broken by using a special jutsu."

"A blood seal? That will work?" This was something Iruka understood. He grasped at the ray of hope. "Then why not seal her now, that way she can go back to the nursery, as long as we're very careful, we won't need…" He shot a look at the woman beside him.

"We'll need to use her father's blood."

"Oh."

Right, he wasn't really Keshi's father, he didn't count. In Tsunade's eyes he was just the fool her famous father had hooked up, who was raising his kid because her mother had abandoned her.

And they couldn't use Kakashi's blood. Kakashi wasn't there.

"Iruka." The unexpected softness had crept back into Tsunade's voice, as if she had been reading his thoughts. "She has inherited this power from the Hatake bloodline, so it is his blood that must be used to seal it. Meanwhile we will continue to use whatever temporary measures we can, for as long as we can."

Sensing that he'd been dismissed, Iruka bowed deeply. He should get back to his classroom, if only to rescue what was left of Kotetsu. But he couldn't resist turning to take a final look at the woman who'd been appointed to take care of his child. Kakashi had asked for a nanny? Impossible.

Ooooooooooooooooooooo

The installation of the woman, Hatane Kagura, into the Hatake household was brutal and swift.

Two days later Keshi was out cold, sprawled on Iruka's lap. Iruka knew that he should put her to bed, it was way past her bed time, but he just didn't want to. He didn't want to give up the contact, the warmth of her small body, the little puffs of her toothpaste scented breath against his skin. He closed the book he had been reading and set it aside. Just what was it about the Cat in the Hat that reminded him of Kakashi anyway? The way he'd appeared in his life from nowhere, turned his whole world upside down and somehow made him happy in the process? Or maybe it was just the slouch?

He hoisted his little girl onto his shoulder and carried her to her bedroom. As he lay her down he carefully loosened the amulet around her neck. It went against every grain in his body to let her sleep in it, even though Jiraiya had promised that there was no way it could choke her in her sleep, that he'd designed it himself so that chain would release if too much strain was put on it.

But the real reason he was reluctant to let her go was that his worse fears had already come true. Keshi had taken to Kagura-san immediately. They laughed at each other's silliness, played in the mud together shamelessly, fitted together as naturally as two pieces of a puzzle. Iruka was afraid to guess at the picture in the completed puzzle, afraid that if he was in it at all he would be off to the side, in a corner.

Kagura-san was propped up on a second bed, a new addition to Keshi's room, reading. She stood up as Iruka entered with the sleeping girl, and came over to take his place at her bedside. As Iruka walked out of the room he saw Kagura kiss Keshi's cheek and start fussing with her covers. Then she followed him to the bedroom door and closed it behind him, shutting him out.


	15. Chapter 15

For a relatively small woman Tsunade loomed _very_ effectively.

"Let… me… take… her… Iruka… Kagura-san should look after her for now."

Iruka didn't answer, he was numb. He had been since he'd dashed to the hospital and seen Gai place a limp and unconscious Kakashi onto an examining table. He wasn't even aware that he was holding Keshi until it was pointed out to him. Kagura must have brought her there.

Deep inside he knew that it was ok, that it _wasn't_ like that other time. That Kakashi was just exhausted and unconscious from sharingan overuse, not locked inside the hell of his worst imaginings. But he also knew that there was a good chance that one day, one unimaginably horrible day, it wouldn't be ok. That the table his lover was being laid out on wouldn't be in the hospital, it would be in the morgue. If he was lucky enough to see him at all.

Tsunade used her powerful fingers in an attempt to pry the child's grip loose from the back of Iruka's neck. She was clinging to him like a young monkey, a monkey wearing her favourite orange sweats.

Keshi's only response was to press tighter and whimper as only a frightened toddler can. "No no noooo! Want to stay with daddy two!"

"It's ok sweetheart, I've got you. We'll stay right here with Daddy One."

"It's ok, really." Iruka's eyes flickered up to the Hokage's, idly noticing the deep crease that had formed between then, before gravitating back to the comatose form. "She isn't very heavy."

He lowered himself into a chair at the side of the dismal hospital room and gently settled Keshi onto his lap. "Please, we'll just stay here for a while. " He shot the intruder, Kagura, a look, before turning plaintive brown eyes onto his leader once more. "Just the two of us."

Tsunade felt her resolve melting into a mushy puddle. From the brief report Gai had given her as she'd hustled him into the hospital, she knew that Kakashi had just damn near done the impossible. She owed him this much, and his family too. And even she wasn't completely immune to those sad brown eyes.

"Very well. But I'll still expect you to be in school tomorrow. And I'm relying on you to keep his… your… kid under control too."

She shooed a very pissed looking Kagura out of the room and started her exam, muttering about irresponsible fathers who raised reckless overachieving brats. Before going into a long diatribe against psychotic twisted power hungry excuses for missing nins that forced her into these kinds of impossible decisions.

Iruka watched in silence from the corner of the room, rocking Keshi gently, and more grateful than he could say for her warmth against his belly.

Tsunade shot him a look and he pulled in his chakra automatically, fearing that he'd let it intrude. But it hadn't really been that kind of look. And as she touched Kakasi's death-pale cheek with the back of her hand and folded back his eyelids to examine blank staring eyes, Iruka caught the shadow of another expression on her face. It was perhaps the one he'd least expected to ever see there, affection.

He snuggled Keshi closer and made gentle shushing noises in her ear, as he examined the anxious furrows that were wrinkling the Hokage's brow more closely. And he wondered. Who else would have had the power and chakra control to hold a scared and dangerous two year old Kakashi? Had Tsunade once cuddled the Hatake child of the previous generation close against her chest, twenty five years ago, when White Fang had been brought into the hospital to be patched up after one of his legendary battles?

"He'll live. Not that he deserves to after pulling that kind of stunt. Using mangekyou sharingan like that… not even the Uchiha's…"

Tsunade pulled herself to her full height, using a fist to rub at a knot of tension in the small of her back. Iruka had automatically risen to his feet at the same time, she turned to face him and he realized that this was the first time he'd ever seen her really smile. It made her look more human and more beautiful than he'd have imagined possible, and shocked him to the core of his being.

"I'll have him put in a double room for tonight. Yes… you two can stay, _and_ I'll have someone cover your morning class."

As she swept out of the room he heard her mumble, almost under her breath, as if she was reluctant to let the words out. "But I can't leave a novice in charge of weapons training. I can't afford to let good shinobi get injured without a damn good reason, not now."

Oooooooooooooooooooooooo

As the orange ball of a late summer sun was struggling to force morning past a curtain of scarlet clouds, a second ball of orange energy burst through the doorway. Keshi the smallest ball of orange yet, scrambled over the bars that Iruka had raised on her side of the bed, dropped to the floor, and met it half way across the room.

"Ruto! Skura!"

Naruto scooped her up and swung her round. "Hey there Mini-minx!"

"Naruto! You can't just barge in. Oh well, I suppose it's too late now."

Sakura, looking considerably paler and more subdued, kept her eyes fixed on Kakashi as she followed. She released the catch on the bars, folded them out of the way, and sat on the edge of Iruka's bed.

"So how is he Iruka-sensei? Really?"

Iruka threw back the covers and swung down his legs to sit next to her. Thankfully he was still fully dressed, except for his shoes that he'd left just inside the door. "Fine… well except for… But Tsunade checked him over thoroughly, gave him a clean bill."

Naruto was swooping Keshi over his head like a model airplane, while she giggled maniacally. "You shoulda seen him Iruka –sensei, he was brilliant! Brilliant! He just zapped that freak and his stinking bombs right outa there. Shloop! Pow! Gone! The Akatsuki'll know better than to go messing with Team Kakashi next time, right?"

Sakura gave him a cursory glare for old time's sake, although in truth his wild enthusiasm no longer annoyed her quite the way it once had. "But Kakashi-sensei's getting to old to abuse his body like this. It takes him longer to recover every time. You should tell him Iruka-sensei."

Iruka looked at her softly, of course she was right. "I doubt that he'd appreciate you calling him old Sakura."

Naruto perched Keshi on his shoulder where she balanced by holding fistfuls of blond hair. "Well he'd better hurry up and wake up this time. Did they tell you? We've got a lead on finding Sasuske! A real cast-iron solid lead! We'll be sure to bring the bastard back this time!"

"I'll wake my daddy up, like Sleepy Beauty." Keshi dropped her weight to the floor, still holding fast to Naruto's hair.

"Aargh! Careful there Princess! I'll look older than he does if you pull all my hair out."

Keshi ignored him and brushed his golden strands from her palms as she clambered onto the bed where Kakashi lay, as pale and still as a wax effigy. She crawled towards him, shoved the covers aside, and planted an open mouthed sloppy kiss on his cheek.

"S'not working. You do it Daddy. You wake him up."

Sakura took a step closer. "He's not ready to wake up yet that's all. Remember Sleeping Beauty had to wait for a hundred years."

He little face scrunched as if she was about to cry. "I don't want to wait for a hundred years. I want Daddy One awake now."

Sakura stretched towards her for a comforting hug but Keshi suddenly turned away and pulled the sheet all the way over her sleeping father's head. "No! No peeking. Daddy One's not dressed up yet. Just Daddy Two and me can see him not dressed up yet." Her sad face had morphed into an indignant pout.

Sakura blushed to her hairline, while Naruto and Iruka both grinned like foxes.

"She caught you there Kiddo." Iruka picked up his daughter and chucked her under the chin. "Clever girl. Perhaps Naruto and Sakura will take you out for breakfast? Would you? She obviously has too much energy to sit around here all morning."

"Naruto let her slide over into his arms. "Sure thing. There should be a few places open by now, ready for the morning mission crowd. What would you like Keshi-hime?"

"Ramens. I want ramens for breakfass."

Naruto pulled a pained face and held her at arm's length. "You had to say it didn't you. I haven't had ramen since… But he'll only just be starting on his broths this early."

Keshi tilted her head to one side. "Then I make Kgura-san get ramens for lunches. I'll make her get lots of lunches for Ruto and Skura-chan too."

"Kagura-san?"

Iruka's face darkened. "New babysitter. Nanny. I expect you'll meet her when you take Keshi home."

Sakura realized that there was a story here, but that now wasn't the time to ask. She stashed the thought away and flashed a brilliant smile. "Why don't you come with us Iruka-sensei? You look like you could use a break."

He ran his fingers through his tangled hair as far as the tie would allow. He undoubtedly looked like shit. "No, I'll stay as long as I can. I've still got classes to teach later today."

"Then would you like us to pick up some clean clothes?" She blushed again. "I mean you obviously slept in those and Naruto can get some if you tell him where to look."

Iruka blushed too, just the thought of these kids digging through his underwear… "No don't bother. It will be good training to expose the kids to a bit of manly man-stink." He winked. "You never know, they might get sent out on a mission in the desert with Gai-san for a few weeks."

Sakura wrinkled her nose. "Gah don't remind me, you are cruel Iruka-sensei."

A few moments later they were gone and silence descended on the room like a ghostly presence.

Iruka lifted he sheet off Kakashi's head and folded it neatly around his throat. He wiped Keshi's spit off his cheek and, after a moment's hesitation, kissed him full on the lips. Kakashi's breath hitched very faintly in his sleep and he stretched out an arm as if reaching for a body that wasn't there. Well that was easy to fix. Iruka eased onto the bed and lay down with his head pillowed on Kakashi's shoulder. It was hard and bony and the space was too narrow and cramped to let him even think about relaxing.

"Kakashi, I'd just love to complain about all the awful stuff that's happened while you were gone, but I know that compared with what you've just been through it's.. it's like nothing. So I guess I'd feel like an idiot saying anything at all." He placed his palm on his lover's chest, delighting in the rhythm of its gentle rise and fall. "But still, it's unbelievably good to have you back."


	16. Chapter 16

When Kakashi opened his one working eye he found himself staring at an institutional style suspended ceiling. The kind formed from large rectangular slabs of fire-resistant… stuff set on a metal grid beneath the pipes, air ducts, cables and com lines that were the life support of the building. It hid their ugliness just as his human skin hid his ugliness of arteries and veins and nerves and guts.

Moisture had gathered at the crack between two of the ceiling tiles, third up from the corner and five across, darkening it into a brown line, like the parody of a battle scar. It was all too familiar.

"Sheesh. Not this place again!"

Kohona hospital, sharingan overuse, same old same old.

He cringed as recent events came back to him. Gah! He could only hope that Gai hadn't carried him _all _the way home. That would be… embarrassing.

Easing himself to a slump against his pillows, he let his vision sweep the perimeter of the room. There was a streak of blue and green, topped with a tuft of dark hair, wilted across an unaccommodating chair next to the window. Iruka. Now that made any humiliation worthwhile. He'd hug and kiss Gai when he saw him… or not. Give him a flower? Well he'd think of something. Did the gift shop have 'thanks for saving my butt and getting me home and into the arms of my beautiful lover' cards? They should. It was a common enough sentiment in a shinobi village.

When he woke up again Iruka was gone. The immediate sense of loss hit him like a blow. Just how brutally would Tsunade kill him if he snuck out the window and went home?

He'd swung his legs to the side of the bed and was trying to find enough chakra to stiffen them so that they would take his weight when the door opened.

"Kakashi! Just what the hell do you think you're doing?"

Iruka, in full blown fury mode, shoved him down into the pillows and tucked the covers back around him. "Hatake Kakashi, you have to be the biggest idiot I've ever heard of. And don't bother telling me that you weren't trying to sneak out of bed. Just call a goddam nurse if you need something."

Kakashi stretched up and kissed the angry face leaning over him. But he _didn't _need anything, not now. Iruka's face went from outraged purple to embarrassed red. And he _didn't_ kiss back. In fact he stepped away, then went back to the doorway and took a bundle of orange with pink ribbons in its silver hair from the woman standing there, the rather attractive blond woman.

"See? I brought Keshi to visit."

Mmm, but that wouldn't explain his sudden shyness. "Hey there kiddo, come to see your poor old Daddy One?" Even to his own ears his voice sounded strained and cold.

As Iruka sat Keshi on the side of his bed Kakashi shot a glance past the curtain to the woman still lingering by the door.

Ah, so it _was_ Kagura. And Iruka was… ok with her? He analysed the tension and the distance between the two.

Not behaving like best buds certainly, but Iruka was at least being civil, maybe a little brittle but definitely not hostile. And Kagura didn't _look_ as if she'd been attacked with anything sharp.

The only possible explanation dawned on him and instantly filled him with the threat of impending doom. Tsunade hadn't told him, the cowardly old coot.

Later, deal with it later.

"My team? Did they get back ok?"

Iruka flinched at his harsh tone then his face softened into a fond smile. "Yeah, they're fine. Naruto can bounce back from anything, you now that. And Sakura's tougher than she looks too."

Keshi crawled over the rumpled bed covers to Kakashi's belly then sat on him, indifferent to the fact that she was using one of the greatest ninjas of the current age as a mat, and stared into his eyes. He closed the left one tighter, his control was shot to hell and there were things in there no toddler should ever see.

"Ruto and Skura came to play every day Daddy. Ruto says Team K'kashi powns. He says they got one back and now they're gonna go and get the other bastard. What's a bastard Daddy?"

Kakashi didn't even smirk at Iruka's strangled 'eep' as he snatched Keshi off the bed and held her at arm's length.

"Keshi! That's a bad word. Remember I told you that there are words it's not polite to say?"

Keshi's little face started to pucker and two fat tears rolled down her cheeks. "But Ruto said…"

Iruka folded her against his chest and rubbed comforting little circles on her back. "There there, you don't want Daddy One to see you crying now. I'm not cross with you." He stared daggers at no one in particular, although Kakashi felt himself break into a cold sweat as a reflex. "But you can bet I'll be having a little talk with 'Ruto-kun'."

He shifted her weight to his hip and used the other hand to finger comb Kakashi's hair back from his face, then pressed the back of his hand against his clammy forehead. Kakashi still had the hard edge of the mission etched onto his features, but there was nothing he could do to ease it here, not with Keshi and Kagura in the room. "We should go, you look stre… tired. I'll be back when you've had time to rest a bit more. Keshi, give Daddy a goodbye kiss."

Kakashi leaned into Keshi's sloppy smooch and looked hopefully at Iruka. His lover gave the figure at the door a nervous glance and pulled the bed curtain halfway closed before pecking him softly on the other cheek.

Then he cupped his jaw in his hand and whispered, lips barely moving. "They won't really send you out again will they, so soon?"

He replied, just as softly, with a hint of a shrug. "Not my choice. But it's hard to imagine that I'll be much good to anyone, for a while."

Iruka let his hand trace the details of Kakashi's bare face. "That's not true and you know it, it's all the good in the world to me, just seeing you."

Kakashi caught his hand. "Come back soon love, alone."

Still standing unacknowledged by the door, Kagura's hands clenched into fists as she saw the backlit silhouettes of the two men merge into a single shadow behind the curtain. Keshi, who had long since wriggled free, grabbed its edge and spun around, wrapping herself up as if in a winding sheet. But when the curtain was pulled back by her playing, it revealed nothing more than two old friends, clutching each other's hands in a fond farewell.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

For the first time since she'd been imposed on him, Iruka let Kagura hold Keshi's hand while they walked together. His heart and his mind were too full of Kakashi to care. He led them on a small detour through the marketplace, he'd get fresh vegetables, and fish, make his lover some decent soup. Kakashi hated hospital food. Well anyone with working tastbuds would hate hospital food.

But despite his self-imposed indifference he still scowled as he saw her showing off his daughter to the stall holder, while he selected shallots. She had no right to beam with pride like that as the old woman fingered the silk ribbons in Keshi's hair. No right to explain the little tricks she'd used to get then to stay in place in the silky fluff. He shoved his irritation aside as Kagura accepted a small homemade cookie on Keshi's behalf, saying that she'd save it for after lunch.

For once he reigned in his temper and held his tongue. He couldn't chaperone his daughter from her nanny. Really, he should be glad that the woman had such obvious affection for his child. And it was a _good thing_ that Keshi had some one else in her life who loved her.

The shallots were dry, last season's. Maybe he should compromise and use sweet onions, Kakashi had done that before, and the soup was…

He flipped over the stall and dragged Kagura behind it as the characteristic thud of a shuriken confirmed his instincts, no doubt finding its mark exactly where he'd just been standing. He didn't even hear the screams of fleeing civilians all around, but he heard the whistle of another weapon as he tossed aside the vegetables still in his hand, letting them roll and lose themselves in the scattered produce all around, and hauled Kagura and Keshi under him. Just as the kunai sank deep into the wood above his shoulder.

So there was more than one of them, they were surrounded.

With minimal movement he rocked back onto his heels and into a crouch. There were already three kunai in his right hand, his left found Keshi's hair, and the velour of her sweats. He could tell from the vibration in her body that she was shivering, but she wasn't crying. He forced down the swell of paternal pride. Focus.

Keshi was the target. This wasn't the first time they'd infiltrated the village to get her. Whoever 'they' were.

He henged her into the appearance of a bag of rice and whispered, "Run, I'll catch up," into Kagura's ear even as a substitution jutsu placed her and her burden in the scattering crowd and a stallkeeper's battered wooden chair by his side.

Suddenly a genjutsu swirled around him. He was at the academy, in the training field. His students were running in all directions clawing at the weapons embedded in their flesh.

Focus!

He closed his eyes and shot his kunai at the one point of genuine menace that he could sense beyond the illusion. It was bearing down on him from high in the air, way above the heads of the crowd. By the time he'd reached the body he was already back in the marketplace.

Asuma's voice rang out through the silence. "Got them all?"

"Yeah, these three and the one the Sensei took down over there."

Good, now to find Keshi, and Kagura. They hadn't had time to get far.

Iruka spared a moment to check his victim. To his surprise he recognized him at once, despite the kunai lodged in his left eye and the one in his throat. He'd seen him repairing brickwork at the academy, after a particularly disastrous exploding tag demonstration. He'd seen him before that too, building a wall at the village nursery, the one that had been so efficiently destroyed. Curiosity piqued, he bent down and looked at his hands, bricklayer's hands, thick-skinned and leathery.

Of course, the characteristic calluses that came from constant practice with steel weapons would be lost in all that toughness. Clever.

"Iruka! Over here."

He turned at the sound of Genma's voice and saw him dragging a body to lie beside two others, in an area cleared of debris. But what made his heart jump to his throat was the fourth body lying nearby. Kagura, face down, the shiny points of a shuriken protruding from her back like the spines on a stegosaurus.

"KESHI!"

He was there in an instant, groping under the limp form for his daughter. She wriggled free and fairly leapt into his arms. "DADDY!"

She gripped him around the neck as if she was trying to fuse their bodies together, while wrinkling her nose against the fresh corpse stink of cooling blood and shit that was rising like a miasma all around.

Keshi was safe, it was alright, Keshi was safe. Iruka sank to his knees in his effort not to faint from relief. Then he remembered Kagura.

With a monumental effort he forced his eyes to the body beside him. A shuriken to the back. To protect Keshi Kagura had taken a shuriken to the back. He placed a finger to her throat and felt a faint pulse and for the second time in as many minutes a wave of relief washed over him. He hauled Kagura up and close against him while he kept his vice-like grip on Keshi with his other arm. The little girl already had a shinobi's instincts, she kept her body completely still and didn't make another sound.

"I… I'll take them to the hospital, they need… she needs… "

Asuma was crouched in front of him, a gentle smile losing its battle with the fury clouding his eyes.

"Iruka-sensei, you may be used to bossing jounins around in your personal life, but I'm in charge here for now. Give me the woman, she'll be taken care of. Just get your kid to the hospital and for God's sake talk to Kakashi before news of this starts filtering through to him there."

Right, ok. Keshi, Kakashi, the hospital. He could do that.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kakashi looked up from his book, but Iruka could tell that he hadn't really been reading.

"You smell of blood Iruka. What the hell happened? And what the hell are you wearing?"

He did? He'd showered and changed into orderly's scrubs before he'd dared set foot in Kakashi's room. Looks like he'd wasted his time.

"Yes. But it's… it's not mine. It's Kagura's, she's two rooms down."

His voice took on the impersonal tone of a mission report. "We were attacked in the market place. Four hostiles, ninja skills. Dead. I killed one. Asuma and Genma were there, probably others too, they killed the rest. Two civilian casualties. They hadn't been identified when I left the scene. Kagura was injured in the fight. A shuriken in the back, the medics already healed her but she's suffering after effects of shock.

Kakashi's visible eye had darkened to an unfathomable black. "Keshi?"

"Escaped all harm. Kagura protected her successfully. Shuzune-san is watching her now."

It wasn't until he saw Kakashi relax that he felt the tension in his guts start to unwind as well. He knew without saying a word that they'd reached an understanding. That they'd talk about this later, when they were both home and in their own familiar territory. They'd thrash out the details, work out what had happened, and how to make sure it never happened again. They'd find a way to keep Keshi safe in her own village. But for now Kakashi was still too wired from his recent mission to make any decisions that weren't too cold and analytical to be repellant to him. And he was still far too over emotional to say anything at all.

He'd go and retrieve Keshi from Shizune and the three of them would hang out in this room and chat and play kiddie games and pretend that nothing had happened, for as long as the hospital staff would let them. They were a family, they'd get through this together, but later.

They'd deal with it later.


	17. Chapter 17

Iruka idly thumbed through last year's lesson plan book at the kitchen table. There had to be something here he could use. Why did each class have to be so… different from the one before? He knew other teachers who used exactly the same lectures year after year. Hell he'd walked past old Akira-sensei's class a few weeks ago and heard him teaching the same lesson, word for word, that he'd taught him, when he was nine.

He'd only been given two days of leave to stay home with Kakashi, now that he had finally been released from the clutches Tsunade's medical staff. And he'd be damned if he was going to spend them planning lessons.

He knew the man was valuable to the village, and he knew that he was reckless, and God knows, he knew how many times he'd risked causing himself permanent harm by doing too much too soon. But eight days! Kakashi had been kept in that room for eight days, where he couldn't kiss him without feeling that dozens of pairs of unseen eyes were watching. Where Kakashi kept himself hidden behind his mask, or his book, or buried under the bedcovers. When, after this long and dangerous separation, he needed to see him so very much. He needed him home, he needed to touch him, he needed to lie beside him and feel his weight on their shared mattress.

And then there was 'the Kagura situation'.

His grudging acceptance of the woman had become complete when she'd saved Keshi's life, how could it not? But he still couldn't bring himself to actually like her.

Not that there was anything to really dislike. She was efficient, helpful, a decent cook and housekeeper. And Keshi adored her, which, he reminded himself pointedly, was a good thing. But there was a look he sometimes caught from the corner of her eye, as if she considered Iruka the intruder in this household.

Ok, so he shouldn't have gone ballistic when she'd rearranged the contents of the kitchen more to her liking. After all she was the one who used them ninety percent of the time. And she should have _asked_ before she'd bought 'My Pretty Pony' covers for Keshi's bed, covers that Keshi was at that moment helping her to put back on her bed. True her old dolphin ones were looking tired and faded. Kid's bedsheets got washed a lot. And she'd stepped _way_ over the line when she suggested to Keshi that it was high time she got rid of that old dolphin crib mobile, now that it didn't match.

He'd heard that particular conversation by chance as he'd come back from the hospital to grab some edible food. And had felt his chest swell with quite unjustified pride when, genetics be damned, Keshi had let rip a temper tantrum to match any of his own at that age.

No, the woman's presence was a done deal. And he'd be damned if he ever let Keshi know how much it still rankled. Or Kakashi.

Now that was a bitter pill to swallow. Because Iruka knew beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the only reason Kakashi had been allowed home was because Kagura was here to help nurse him.

He closed the book with a sigh, he couldn't even concentrate. And poured the ramen he'd been heating into a large bowl.

Yes, a very bitter pill. Letting Kagura take care of Keshi was one thing, but Kakashi… At least she'd never see him without his mask, he was confident of that. It had to keep some kind of reasonable psychological distance between the two. That was one reason why he still insisted on taking Kakashi his meals when he could. He didn't want his lover to eat everything in one swallow. That just couldn't be healthy.

Gathering chopsticks and a spoon from the wrong drawer, he cradled the hot bowl in a napkin and made his way to their bedroom.

And froze.

Kagura was seated on the side of their bed.

As Iruka watched, thunderstruck, she eased down Kakashi's mask and rested her hand against his cheek. Kakashi's eyes snapped open. He placed a hand over Kagura's and lifted it away, while he replaced his mask with the other hand.

"You shouldn't do that Kagura." He glanced towards the door.

She leapt to her feet and shoved her way past Iruka and out the door.

Iruka had only the dimmest awareness of the bowl falling from his hands and bouncing once on the hardwood floor, before tipping over and depositing the noodles in a heap that leaked broth in an ever widening puddle.

He advanced slowly towards the bed.

"Kakashi? What the hell was that about? Do you know her?"

Kakashi's one eyed gaze didn't falter. "Yes. Not well, but I know her. Iruka, you should sit down." He patted the side of the bed.

Iruka didn't.

"She's Keshi's mother."

Iruka felt as if his knees had been knocked out from under him. His backside met the bed before he'd even realized it.

"The woman you… who…"

Tiny pieces of the puzzle started to fit together. The way Tsunade had insisted that Kagura was best qualified to look after Keshi. The natural bond that was obvious between the woman and her daughter. And the feelings that she obviously still had for Kakashi.

"And you had Tsunade bring her here? To live with us… with you?"

And hadn't Tsunade mentioned that it was Kakashi's idea in the first place?

Rage roared through him like a forest fire.

"Get out! Get out of this house, I never want to see you again, and take your your… woman with you."

But rather than pushing Kakashi away Iruka shoved him down into the bed and ripped off his mask, replacing it with a covering of his own lips, kissing and biting fiercly. With a tiny infusion of chakra from his hand he shredded Kakashi's thin tshirt as if it was rice paper.

Kakashi managed to force out a strangled chuckle. "Hey Ru, not that I don't enjoy seeing this side once in a while, but have a little mercy and go easy on me. You know, invalid here, fragile, still weak from sharingan overuse and all that. Don't want to rough me up too much do you?"

Iruka eased himself up with both hands, so that their faces were a few inches apart. "I won't let her near you Kakashi, you're mine and you'd better remember it."

"Always Ru. I told you, it was part of a mission."

"Fuck you Kakashi."

"Yeah, I kinda got that part already. But at least take the time to…"

Iruka collapsed onto him, his hot tears running in streams down both their faces and gathering in the hollow under Kakashi's collarbone as a cold puddle, all their passion spent.

Kakashi held him tight, ignoring the way he flinched at his touch, although it burned his heart and soul like acid. "Hey hey. This isn't like you." Where's my fierce hot tempered stubborn as an ass sensei?

He blotted the tears from Iruka's face with a corner of the bedsheet. "That's better. Now will you let me explain before you tear me a new one and throw me out on my ear?"

Iruka sniffed but wouldn't meet his eyes. "Will I like what you've got to say?

"No. But I promise you won't hate it any more than I do. Listen, who knows everything, and I mean everything, that's going on in a great house or a castle?"

"Kakashi! I don't see what…"

"You will, just answer the question."

The servants. They have access to the whole house and can share all the gossip. Look everyone knows, it's basic infiltration techniques. But I don't see…

"Right. And the best and most discrete way to get that information out of them is…?"

"Sex."

"Good. You did learn all this stuff Sensei. Did you ever have to seduce someone for information on a mission?"

"Just once. But I… I didn't like it."

Kakashi gave him an unreadable look. "Actually most consider the sex as a bit of a bonus. And anyone in a truly commited relationship would tend to pass by that kind of mission, except…"

Except?

"Except some of us with 'special skills' aren't given a choice. Somehow Orochimaru knew all about that. Well it's not too surprising, he was a Leaf nin too, a sneaky bastard and attractive in his own way from what I remember. Probably did his share of infiltration when he was younger. It was just his bad luck that I hooked up with Kagura rather than the women he'd planted for me to sleep with. Actually I slept with them too, but only once. They didn't tell me anything useful and unfortunately for him none of them got pregnant."

Iruka was now sitting on the edge of the bed, ramrod straight. "Right, so you screwed every woman in the whole household. Now I feel much better. And how the hell would you know that _this woman_ was the only one you managed to knock up?"

"Because I was careful, and if one of his carefully chosen floosies _had_ succeeded in getting pregnant Orochimaru wouldn't still be coming after Keshi. He wants a female Hatake child and he'll go to any lengths to get one."

Iruka snorted disdainfully. "Are you suggesting that Orochimaru set up the situation in Thunder Country just so you'd be sent out there and knock up some poor woman?"

Kakashi eased himself up on his pillows so that he could see iruka's face more easily.

"More or less, or at least he was quick enough to take advantage of it when he saw which way it was going. Actually I'm pretty sure my daughter is a second choice. What he really wants is me, but female."

Iruka rolled his eyes. This conversation was rapidly going from bizarre to ridiculous. "And how the hell would he get that?

But Kakashi's voice had taken on a serious tone that Iruka had only heard twice before. When he'd told him that Sandaime was dead, and when he'd came back to Konoha carrying an unconscious Naruto to tell him that Sasuske had defected to sound.

"I think Orochimaru stole some of my father's remains, actually he might have had them a long time. He was still in Konoha when… and God knows there was enough blood everywhere… Anyway, he's been experimenting. Tsunade's been uncovering… stuff. Babies with Hatake DNA. Dead ones."

He grabbed Iruka's shoulders, scared and exhilarated by the suppressed emotions he could feel pushing for an outlet. "You do realize I'm not supposed to tell you this? Hell I'm not supposed to know it."

Iruka pulled himself away. "But you do don't you? Don't tell me, you worked it out before Tsunade did."

Kakashi bared his teeth in a humourless grin, or it could have just as easily have been a snarl.

"She _hasn't_ worked it out… yet. I thought maybe if Keshi's chakra was weak, it might have been, there was no guarantee, with a civilian mother."

He tapped his covered eye. "Have you any idea what the chances were of this thing actually working. Of anyone who _isn't_ an Uchiha being able to use a sharingan? Of course there are things I _can't_ do, but others I can do better than an Uchiha. Imagine what a Hatake born with these eyes could do."

Iruka's jaw dropped as the horror of the possibility dawned on him. "You mean Orochimaru wants Keshi… and Sasuske! To…? But Kakashi, she's only two years old!"

Kakashi slumped forward, picking at the ragged remains of his shirt. "Doesn't matter. Baby girls are born with their eggs already formed. All he has to do is harvest them and plant embryos into surrogates. He'd revive the Uchiha clan, create an army of sharingan users and provide himself with a limitless number of host bodies all at the same time. Sweet deal. And you can see why Tsunade can't let him, no matter what it takes. If the council had the faintest idea they'd have had Keshi destroyed the moment she was brought through that gate."

"Destroyed! You mean…?"

Kakashi nodded grimly. 'That's why she has to leave. We'll dye her hair blond. Orochimaru won't be looking for a mother and daughter, especially not in Grass country."

"Mother and… Damn you Kakashi. If you manipulated me…"

"No I didn't Iruka, I promise. That's just the way it worked out. I never even thought that you'd be jealous of Kagura, because you shouldn't be you know. But don't you see it's for the best. We can't protect Keshi here, the only way to make her safe is to make her invisible. And to do that we have to send her away. Her mother is the only person in the world, outside this room, that we can trust to do that."

Iruka stared at him through newly wet eyes. "But but… her mother didn't want her. She abandoned her."

Kakashi's voice was flat and resigned. "She didn't have a choice. Orochimaru was tracking her down so she sent Keshi away, to keep her safe. Shouldn't we be willing to do as much?"

Iruka blinked and the tears ran from his eyes, catching in his scar and following its path until gravity took over and pulled them to the point of his chin. "Kakashi I can't. I love her too much to let her go."

Kakashi pulled him onto his lap and wrapped his arms around him again. "No Iruka, you love her _enough_ to let her go. We both do."

Kagura was with Keshi in the garden, arranging her toys for a tea party. She knew only two well what must be going on back in the house. She'd changed her name and fled to the house of Shiro in far away Hekireki to escape the heartache of a failed affair. Only to have her heart broken again, and to find out that she was pregnant to boot. So she'd fled again. And then she'd heard from a kitchen maid who'd been a close friend, that suspicious strangers had been paying some of the servants large sums of money, asking after pregnant girls.

She didn't know what any of this was about. But she knew that right now her fate, and the fate of the child she loved, was being decided by the man she still loved and the man he loved more than he could ever love her.

And she hated it.


	18. Chapter 18

Tsunade scowled at the pile of papers on her desk. She scanned the one on top and looked up at her assistant hovering nearby.

"Are you sure this all we have on him. That he was a gennin who failed the chuunin exam four times and then dropped out of sight?"

Shizune suppressed an angry scowl, her own emotions didn't belong here. "Three of the four men who attacked Iruka-sensei were Konoha gennin at one time. And as far as we can tell none of them have left the village in the past three years."

"And before that?"

"We don't know. Those were amongst the records destroyed in the attack by Sound."

Tsunade made an irritated grunt at the back of her throat. "Convenient for them. So they could have been recruited by Orochimaru and been lying low these past few years. Which means there _could _be more."

"That would seem to be the case Hokage-sama."

"And the other one, the bricklayer?"

"He came here to work on the rebuilding effort. Agouti Hiroshi, originally from Earth Country. His background was thoroughly checked at the time and he had no history of shinobi training. He was just a bricklayer. If he was a spy or a sleeper then it was very carefully and professionally done."

"Clearly. And for some reason Orochimaru felt that a chance of capturing Hatake Keshi was worth exposing so many valuable moles? We're missing something Shizune. I know Orochimaru as well as anyone ever will. He's not a gambler like me. There's no way he would have risked this kind of investment without being very confident that he stood to get a great deal more in return."

Shizune couldn't help suspecting that Tsunade was being at least a little paranoid. But then she hardly knew Orochimaru at all. After all it had just been his rotten luck that two of Konoha's very best shinobi were in the marketplace when his men attacked. And even she was surprised that Iruka-sensei hadn't stayed in the hospital with Kakashi.

"It's frustrating Hokage-sama, but I think we're wasting our time trying to understand all the nitty details.

"Kakashi knows, I can tell. He's just like his father, he keeps everything so tight to his chest… even if it ends up killing them. These damn Hatakes and their underneaths. Surely you don't expect me to believe for a moment that he agreed to send Keshi away just to protect Konoha?"

Shizune was stunned, she'd never questioned it. Any loyal Konoha nin would do anything to protect the village. But on the other hand what was the village if not its people, and what was worth protecting more than its children, the village's future? She pushed the thought aside, she'd always been too rational to be a first rate ninja.

"Well in a few hours it won't matter. Whatever reason Orochimaru has for wanting Keshi-hime, her chakra will be sealed and Kakashi-san will be the only one who can release it. She'll be useless to him as a konoichi."

"Yes, of course you're right Shizune. He'd never expect me to give up such a potentially valuable weapon, just for sentimental reasons."

She gave the pile of papers a final disdainful look. "So, shall we go?"

There was a rare flicker of softness in Shizune's eyes as she scooped up the papers and sealed them into a scroll. "Then obviously Orochimaru doesn't know you half as well as you know him Tsunade-sama."

Oooooooooooooooo

The tall white pillars that supported the building above loomed around them, reminding Iruka that the whole weight of the Hokage tower was bearing down on their heads. It was not a good feeling. They were in one of the underground chambers used for secret council meetings and even more secret jutsus. They were there to place a blood seal on Keshi to seal her chakra points, so that she could live as a civilian, so that she'd have no choice.

He bounced his daughter on his knee and nervously combed his fingers through her soft hair. The pale blond dye had taken well, and the effect was completely natural. It was no longer Kakashi's hair, it was Kagura's hair, and it was almost enough to break his heart.

"So you remember what I told you? You're to lie very still and Daddy One and Jiraiya-sama will paint some pictures on your tummy."

Keshi scrunched her rosebud mouth into a pout, as if she was thinking very hard. "Will it hurt?"

"No sweetheart, it won't hurt. But it might… tickle a bit." Iruka tickled her sensitive sides until she was a flailing mess of giggles.

"Stop, no fair. Daddy One save me!" Keshi launched herself into Kakashi's arms.

Iruka hid a scowl, he hadn't even noticed the other man's approach. He always started to lose his focus when he got too emotional.

"Hey." With a big smile that was only half fake, he stood up from the stone bench and brushed his fingertips along Kakashi's cheek. It was too pale, and his skin looked thin and fragile, like tissue paper stretched over the delicate framework of his face.

They should wait. Kakashi wasn't strong enough to do this yet. But Iruka knew that for Kakashi that wasn't an option. Kakashi needed to get this done before Naruto and Sakura came back from their mission, with or without Sasuske.

If their mission failed Keshi had to be kept out of Orochimaru's clutches at all cost. But if the mission was a success, and Orochimaru had survived, having both Sasuske and Keshi in the village would more than double the danger for them both. Of course if Orochimaru was dead, and his followers neutralized… No. He couldn't allow himself that false hope. Orochimaru was harder to kill than a swarm of roaches.

Tsunade and Jiraiya entered the cavernous room together, looking far too solemn for either of them. Sizune followed, holding an ancient yellowed scroll.

"Everyone here? Let's get to it then. Come on little mite, you're the star of this show." Jiraiya took Keshi and spun her above his head. She shrieked with laughter until the world swirled around her in a vortex of colour and light.

The next thing she knew she was opening her eyes and her Daddy Two was wrapping her in a blanket. With the total security that can only be known by a two year old in a parent's arms, she slipped back into the land of sleep.

When she woke again she was in her Daddys' big bed, next to Daddy One. She wrinkled her nose at the sour man-sweat odour clinging to the sheets. Daddy One smelled like this when he came home from missions. Had he been on a mission? In that case she should be quiet. Daddy Two got cranky when she woke up Daddy One when he'd been on missions. She slipped out of bed and ran into the Kitchen.

Daddy Two was sitting at the table talking to Kagura. "… you must keep the seals hidden at all times, it shouldn't be too hard. Bathe her in private and don't let her swim naked. If someone does catch a glimpse, no one without the training will recognise the significance. Say it's an unusual birthmark…"

There were two other people there. All thoughts of quiet forgotten she raced towards them. "Ruto! S'kura!"

Naruto allowed her to knock him backwards and onto his butt. "Keshi-hime! Well I can tell Iruka-sensei's been feeding you plenty of Ramen. You'll be bigger than me in no time."

She clambered onto him. Beyond his grin there was sadness in his eyes, she didn't like it. "You didn't get your other bastard back did you Ruto-kun?"

The whisker marks on his face stood out in stark contrast as he flushed scarlet, but the expected outburst from Iruka-sensei didn't come. All his attention was on Kakashi, who had appeared in the doorway, wrapped in a heavy robe and chuckling through his mask. "Intuitive little minx isn't she. Must get that from Iruka."

The eye that wasn't covered by his hair scanned his teammates. A bit beaten up, but stronger than ever.

"So you're back. No wonder it's loud enough in here to wake the dead. Perfect timing too. As soon as we have Keshi ready we'd like you to take her and Kagura-san to do some shopping. I'm not quite up for escort duty yet, and it will give you a chance to spend some time with her. You see they're going to be leaving on a long trip together very soon."

Keshi squealed with glee. "Really really? We're going on holidays, like Spot the doggy went on holidays and made sandcastles and covered his Daddy all up with sand. I'm going to make lots and lots of sandcastles and cover Daddy One all up with sand and Daddy Two will help me, won't you Daddy?"

Iruka tried, hard, but he just couldn't meet her eyes.

Kakashi scooped her up and sat her on the edge of the table.

"I'm sorry Princess, but Daddy Two and I… well we can't go with you. You see we have very important work to do in the village so we have to stay here. But you'll have fun with Kagura-san. She'll take you to lots and lots of interesting places. And there are a lot of nice people for you to stay with. You'll get to meet your Gandma and Gandpa in Grass Country too, you'll like that won't you."

Keshi sucked in her lips as she considered. "Doesn't K'gura have very important work?"

"Oh yes, she has the most important work of all. You see from now on she's going to be your Mummy, and there's nothing in the world more important than that."

Naruto and Sakura exchanged a puzzled glance and in the silence that followed Kakashi was the only one to notice Iruka slipping out of the room.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooo

It took them three days to get ready for their journey. Three days of saying goodbyes and collecting best wishes for a safe trip. Two days longer than Kakashi wanted, despite Naruto and Sakura's assurances that they'd left Orochimaru in no state to be pursuing anyone.

Iruka would never be ready.

The morning of the fourth day found the four of them clustered at the gate, after a breakfast of eggs and leftover cake from their quiet farewell gathering the day before. Well, maybe not so quiet, Gai and lee had been there. And Jiraiya, and Naruto too. In fact they'd had complaints from half the neighbours.

Kakashi waved the guards away with a promise that he'd watch things until they got back. He didn't know them very well and this was private.

Keshi was clinging to Iruka with the same ferocity she'd used when Kakashi had been brought back to the village unconscious. Was that really just a few weeks ago?

"Don't want to go with just K'gura. I want Daddy Two and Daddy One to come to. Why can't you come to?"

"Now now, we already explained." Kakashi peeled her off his partner and rested her weight against his hip.

"And anyway, you are going to take us all with you, see? He held up a silver charm bracelet and fastened it around her wrist, one handed.

Keshi held it up to eye level and laughed, showing her tiny white teeth. "Look! The dolphin's you Daddy Two, an Daddy One's the scarecrow, an Ruto's the froggy…"

She held a tiny green enamel frog between her finger and thumb, its hind legs splayed and outstretched as if it had been caught mid-leap.

"No, the frog's Grandpa Jiraiya-sama. The fox is Naruto. Don't worry, you'll have lot's of time to work them all out."

"Wass this one Daddy?" She fingered a tiny rectangle, The Queen of Hearts, pierced by the chain at one corner.

"That's Hokage-sama of course. She's the queen of all our hearts, isn't she?" He kissed his fingertip and dabbed it on her nose. "And you're the princess."

He hadn't been able to find a slug charm, no surprise. Choosing a playing card to represent the chronic gambler had amused him, and with Iruka standing right beside him he was glad he'd passed on his other option, the little sake cup.

"You see we're all here. We'll always be with you, not only on this bracelet but in here too." He placed his hand over her heart.

Iruka put his hand on top and kissed her cheek. "That's right Sweetheart, we'll always be in your heart and you'll always be in ours, forever and ever. Wherever you are."

The tension in the air was thick enough to slice with an axe.

"So… ready to go on your big adventure Little Princess?" Kakashi put her in her old stroller, her very first baby gift, and nodded to Kagura, who, too choked for words, pushed her daughter out through the massive gates. She didn't look back as Keshi twisted her body and waved as hard as she could. Kakashi wasn't hers, he never had been, but at least she'd got half of everything she'd come to Konoha to find.

Keshi's two fathers' hands were still clasped together. They stood there watching until long after the two figures had been swallowed by Fire Country's thick forests.

Eventually Iruka broke the heavy silence. "Kakashi? When did you get that bracelet?"

Kakashi was still staring into the distance. "Oh, I've been working on it for a while, collecting bits and pieces, here and there."

A while. Iruka broke his grip and turned to face him.

"You've been planning this for a long time haven't you? Sending Keshi away. This was what you meant, before that last mission? When you asked if you could ever do anything that would upset me so much that I'd stop loving you."

For once in his life Kakashi looked him in the eye and gave him a straightforward honest answer. "Yes."

It was Iruka who looked away first.

Kakashi caught his chin and brought his face back up to his. "You do though don't you, still love me?"

Iruka slowly raised his eyes and the thick lashes that had been dusting his cheeks pulled open, like shutters to the windows on his soul. "Kakashi you've torn my heart out. But you could cut me up into little pieces and scatter them to the ends of the Earth and the pieces would still love you just as much."

Kakashi folded his lover into his arms. "Gods Ruka, I don't deserve you. I can't imagine anyone who could deserve you. I wish I was half as strong as you are."

"Strong? Kakashi, I know you're hurting from this just as much as I am but you haven't shed a single tear."

"That's what I mean. I only wish I was strong enough to cry."

"Oh God, I miss her so much already." Kakashi held him for as long as his silent tears kept flowing, letting him cry for both of them.

Eventually Iruka pulled away and looked at him through red-rimmed eyes. "Will we ever see her again?"

Kakashi nodded against his shoulder. "As long everything works out, and I don't see why it wouldn't. We'll give things a few months to settle down, then take a few days off and see if we can track her down. Maybe bring the kids along, it will be good practice, for all of us."

"A few days! I know Grass Country's not that big, but you can't seriously expect to find someone in just a few days!"

Kakashi smirked his most annoying smirk and twitched a scrap of paper between his fingers. "You can if you have their address."

A second later Iruka was the one smirking. Kakashi was sitting on the ground rubbing at the swelling on his head. Of course he could have dodged, could have stopped Iruka from snatching the paper, but where was the fun in that?

"Kakashi! This address isn't in Grass, it's in Wave."

"Mmm. I lied. Wave's much more convenient don't you think? Without all those annoying border jutsus to sneak past. I've arranged for them to take a scenic route, through Grass to visit Kagura's parents, and then back and along the coast. It will keep them within Fire Country borders most of the way, just in case someone thinks they're worth following, which I doubt. But they should be settled in before September, in time for us to visit for Keshi's birthday. According to Kagura she's two weeks younger than we thought, well she should know."

Iruka opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. He was too stunned.

"Perhaps by her next birthday we'll have her back, or if not, then maybe the one after. We should get another goat for her party."

Iruka had finally found his voice. Although it was high and squeaky and didn't really sound like his at all. "Back? You really think she can come back one day?"

Icy determination glittered in Kakshi's eye. "Oh yes. As soon as Orochimaru's dead we'll bring her back. We can share custody with Kagura and when she's old enough to go to the academy I'll lift the blood seal. And once Sasuske's safely back in Konoha who knows? There's only fourteen years between them, they are plenty of happy marriages around with bigger age gaps than that. Maybe we'll live to see a whole new generation of Sharingan Hatakes."

"Kakashi! You scheming… you've got it all worked out haven't you. And since when were you a meddling matchmaker. What if she doesn't like Sasuske?"

"Hey it was just a thought. Frankly I don't know why any girl would, but if I remember right plenty of them used to."

Iruka was wrapping his mind around the idea of grandchildren with silver hair, frosty looks and sharingan eyes. "Anyway, that would be at least twenty years in the future."

"That's right. The future Ru. Keshi's our future. As long as we have her, wherever she is, we have a future. And with kids like her Konoha has a future too. These are troubled times but we'll get past them, just wait and see."

For the first time in days Iruka smiled. He'd never seen this side of Kakashi before, this bright wild optimism that was making his eyes shine and firing him with so much energy that Iruka could feel it tingling all around. He liked it.

"The future huh? I'm not sure if any bars are open yet but since they're not expecting me at work I think I'd like to drink to that."

Kakashi grabbed him and kissed him hard, not caring that the guards were already back up in the tower, and watching with considerable interest. Particularly the Konoichi.

"Sake? At this hour? Iruka-sensei, we'll make a Hokage of you yet."

Iruka did care. "Kakashi!"

He pulled away and straightened Kakashi's mask then straightened his jacket, while willing the blush away from his cheeks. But he kept Kakashi's hand in his as they made their way back towards the heart of Konoha.

"By the way, what charm did you get as Sakura?"

"A flower."

"Mmm, predictable, but cute. How about Gai?"

"A Turtle."

"Shizune?"

"A cattle prod."

"You did not. They don't make silver charms of cattle prods."

"Do to, it's a miniature working model, all you have to do is infuse a little chakra in it…"

oooooooooooooooooooo

A?N Well that's it folks, the end. Maybe, I'll do a follow-up story sometime. One with Keshi all grown up and Naruto as Hokage. It might be fun to see how the guys cope with their teenage daughter going on dates. But that's for the future to decide.

Love and kisses,

T.


End file.
